Thomas Breen photos
Protesters outside Hamden PD headquarters.
GO ON gas station at 144 Arch St.; the on-duty clerk Thursday described the complaint that set in motion the police confrontation.
Hamden taxpayers and Yale may end up paying for the bullets its cops sprayed into a car occupied by two unarmed people in Newhallville.
Paul Witherspoon III, one of the car’s occupants, is preparing a lawsuit against the town and the university, according to his attorney, Michael Dolan.
WTNH photo
Paul Witherspoon.
“Within a week,” Dolan said, “we will be putting the town of Hamden and Yale on notice of our intention to bring a claim.
“We’re going to conduct our own investigation, continue to gather information. We intend to hold the parties responsible who are at fault.”
A Hamden cop and a Yale cop boxed in a Honda Civic that Witherspoon was driving at around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood.
The Hamden cop had driven into New Haven on a report of an alleged attempted robbery involving a possible simulation of a gun outside a Hamden gas station mini-mart.
The cop ordered Witherspoon out of the car. Then both officers began spraying the car with bullets, leading Witherspoon to return into the car, Witherspoon told WTNH’s Mario Boone in this interview.
At least 16 shots were fired, according to people familiar with the incident. It’s unclear at this point whether the Yale cop or the Hamden cop fired first.
One of the bullets struck the car’s passenger, Stephanie Washington, in the torso. Reports are that she may have also suffered a facial injury amid the fusillade. (Read more about the case and the fallout here, here, and here.)
The officers’ actions were captured on a surveillance video, which you can watch above (or a clearer version on WTNH’s Kent Pierce’s Twitter feed, reproduced here as well).
Surveillance video shows the moment a Hamden police officer opens fire on a car in New Haven. pic.twitter.com/h7IrwPbcgo
— Kent Pierce (@kentpierce8) April 16, 2019
The state police said Friday that the Yale officer, Terrance Pollock, was also injured. He was treated at the hospital afterward and released, according to a state police statement. “[D]etails regarding the injury will be available after investigators have reviewed any available medical records.”
No weapons were found in the car. Hamden at first detained Witherspoon, then released him without charging him with a crime.
The case has sparked outrage and protest in New Haven, with numerous rallies and calls for more information, especially in the light of a surveillance video that called into question the official version of events. The two cops are on administrative leave; death threats have been made against them, according to the police. Meanwhile, the state police and state’s attorney’s office are conducting an investigation into the shooting.
What Happened At GO ON
Thomas Breen photos
State police investigate the scene of the shooting on Tuesday at Argyle and Dixwell.
The episode began with an encounter at the the GO ON gas station/ convenience store at 144 Arch St. in Hamden.
Aziz, a store clerk at the GO ON gas station at 144 Arch St. in Hamden, was on duty at the time of Witherspoon’s alleged attempted robbery of a newspaper deliveryman outside of the gas station’s mini-mart around 4 a.m. on Tuesday.
In an interview at the station Thursday, Aziz (he declined to give his last name) said Witherspoon put his hand underneath his shirt, and pointed at the newspaper deliveryman as if he had a gun. He said Witherspoon was with Washington.
“They didn’t have no gun on them,” he said.
Alone in the store at the time, Aziz called the police and said that a robbery was taking place outside of his store.
After he called the police, he said, Witherspoon and Washington departed, without taking any money from either the store or from the newspaper deliveryman.
The dispute never made its way into the mini-mart, Aziz said. “He didn’t take any money from me.”
The store does not have any surveillance video of the incident outside of the gas station, Aziz said.
“The cops came here and go,” he said. “This story makes me mad. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
He said nothing like this has happened at this gas station before.
Hamden attorney Michael Dolan.
“He denies those allegations absolutely,” attorney Dolan said of Aziz’s account of an attampted robbery. Dolan described the incident as a “verbal argument.”
“He never had a gun. He never attempted to rob anyone or commit a crime,” Dolan said of his client. He said Witherspoon will not be giving more interviews for now; Witherspoon, who is 21 years old, spoke with WTNH after Hamden police released him on Tuesday.
Dolan said Witherspoon and Washington are a romantic couple; he said they had “just been at a friend’s house” when Officer Devin Eaton stopped them at Dixwell Avenue and Argyle Street Tuesday morning.
Stephanie Washington, who is 22 years old, is being represented by Milford attorney Win Smith, a former state senator.
“We are presently reviewing the matter with the family and will be back to folks with a statement very soon,” Smith told the Independent Thursday.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, who has been in touch with the family, reported that Washington “is resting well. The family wants privacy and time to heal.” Smith, too, said the family seeks privacy at the moment, including about questions of what injuries Washington sustained.
“Notorious” Border Crossing
Boisie Kimber speaking out against the shooting.
Hamden and city officials said the state’s attorney’s office has promised to release more information, including body camera footage, by week’s end.
Meanwhile, activists continue to hold rallies and demand answers.
One of them, the Rev. Boise Kimber said he and other Newhallville ministers have a Thursday afternoon meeting set with Yale officials to discuss campus police protocols as well as the university’s relationship with Newhallville and Dixwell. He said the group has a meeting scheduled Friday with Hamden Mayor Curt Leng.
“Hamden’s got to stay the hell out of New Haven,” Kimber said during a discussion of the incident Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven program. “The Hamden police department is out of control.” When its cops come into New Haven, they do so with the mindset that “a black community is a ‘crime’ community.”
Retired New Haven Assistant Police Chief John Velleca, appearing with Kimber on “Dateline,” agreed that Hamden cops have a disturbing history of driving into New Haven without notifying New Haven cops, then creating dangerous situations and overreacting.
Hamden cop Devin Eaton; Yale cop Terrance Pollock.
Velleca said that he drafted a memorandum of understanding in 2010 to try to set better ground rules — something Hamden and New Haven officials said Wednesday that they will now begin meeting to do.
“The Hamden police department is notorious for coming into New Haven and going further than they should go and not telling,” Velleca said.
Based on official statements as well as a surveillance video of the incident, Velleca concluded that the officers used poor tactics and mishandled this incident in every way.
The Hamden officer should have reached out to New Haven police about pursuing a robbery complaint in New Haven, and should have waited for New Haven cops to arrive and assist in a stop, Velleca argued.
And, Velleca said, the police should never have boxed in Witherspoon’s car. New Haven policy would not allow for a roadblock in this case, he said.
Instead, if the officer wished to pull over the car, it should have used its siren and done so, then waited for back-up. And the officer certainly shouldn’t have approached the car, “amped up,” and started firing.
Protesters flood the Hamden PD HQ’s atrium on Tuesday afternoon.
“This is not a training issue. This is poor tactics, and implicit bias” about potential threat posed to the cops, Velleca argued. “As soon as they cross into New Haven, everybody’s a criminal.”
“This kind of incident,” he said, “puts all good cops at risk.”
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full “Dateline New Haven” discussion with Kimber and Velleca on the officer-involved shooting.
I don't understand the signs the protesters keep holding.If Black Lives Matter why do they keep killing each other & were is the BLM why don't they protest why don't they call News conferences with all the other Black on Black Killings and crime in the City???????