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Monday’s rally calling for Devin Eaton’s firing.
Protesters calling for the immediate firing of an embattled Hamden police officer received an amen from an unlikely corner — a former top cop.
The cop — retired New Haven Assistant and Acting Police Chief John Velleca — said Hamden should have fired Officer Devin Eaton soon after he fired 13 bullets into a car occupied by two unarmed people in New Haven on April 16 and sent one target to the hospital.
Surveillance videos captured the incident. The footage told the story, Velleca argued during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
“If I were the chief in Hamden at that time, I would have fired him already and let him earn his job back if this investigation shows there is something we didn’t see that is obvious. This tape is obvious,” Velleca argued.
Police accountability protesters made a similar argument at a rally held in New Haven Monday evening. Earlier Monday, Officer Eaton appeared in court to answer to a felony assault charge and two alleged misdemeanors related to his actions on April 16; he was arrested after a criminal investigation conducted by the office of New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin.
Hamden officials said they needed to wait for the completion of that criminal investigation before completing their own internal investigation of the incident. They argued that they needed to conduct a thorough internal investigation before taking potential disciplinary action against Eaton, because he has due process rights under law and under the police union contract.
Velleca agreed that officers have due process rights. And often departments wait on a criminal probe to finish before interviewing an officer, so as not to jeopardize that criminal probe.
But in this case, Velleca argued, Hamden didn’t need to wait on the state because it had solid video evidence on which to base a firing.
“An investigation that takes a year is not going to change what we see in that video,” Velleca said. “You can give him due process. Due process is only saying he gets a fair shot to present his side of what happened. So give him a hearing. Follow due process. Introduce the tape. And fire him …
“He was in violation of a million different general orders, indifferent of the criminal case. There’s a firearms policy violation. Use of force violation. Getting out of the car. A tactical violation, where he parked the vehicle. Not radioing in …
“As the chief of police, when you start taking into account the union and civil litigation, when you’re looking at something dead in your face and you know exactly what it is, that means that you have now lost control and authority for your police department. If that’s the case, let the attorneys run the police department, let corp[oration] counsel run the police department.”
Monday’s protesters also called on Yale to immediately fire Officer Terrance Pollock, who was at the scene on April 16. Pollock fired three bullets after coming under fire from, it turned out, Officer Eaton.
Velleca disagreed with the call to immediately fire Pollock. He agreed that Pollock may have violated numerous policies; he said that falls under the kind of administrative review that requires more time and care. Unlike Eaton, Pollock had reason to believe his life was at risk, even if he still shouldn’t have fired, Velleca said.
He also argued that the state would not have been able to convince a jury to find Pollock guilty of violating criminal law. He said State’s Attorney Griffin “did a great job” on the criminal probe.
Velleca contrasted New Haven cops’ handling of tense situations with the way the officers in this case reacted. New Haven officers, he argued, “are good at not getting scared when they see something they think is a gun, and not firing until they’re pretty damn sure that’s a gun you’ve got.”
“You’ve got to articulate why you think it’s a gun. People wear watches,” Velleca said. “I don’t see a reason for a use of force because ‘I kind of sort of think someone has a shiny object that I kind of think might be a gun, so let me light the car up.’”
Click on the video below to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with John Velleca.
Come on John. I agree that the video, at face value, demonstrates what appears to be an egregious act, but there are often elements and circumstances that exist which video does not always capture or depict, especially in a quickly evolving and fluid event such as this was and under the dark of night. While SA Griffin's final report details the incident completely and in its entirety and justifies charges, I think firing Ofc. Eaton prior to its release would have been premature and giving the appearance of "caving" to the mob of bullies otherwise known as "People Against Police Brutality" who are already, in their twisted thinking, taking credit for the arrest of the officer. Video can sometimes be deceiving.