The arrest of serviceman Brian North comes after investigators concluded that his shooting of Mubarak Suleman was “unjustified”, according to a report released Wednesday by U.S. Inspector General Robert Devlin Jr.
North shot 19-year-old Sulemain on January 15, 2020, at the end of a chase that began after Suleman, armed with a knife, stole a car in southwestern Connecticut, state police said.
“In short, the investigation found that at the time Soldier North fired his weapon, neither he nor any other person was in imminent danger of being seriously injured or killed by a knife attack at the hands of Soulemane.” Devlin writes in the report. “Besides, any belief that people are in such danger is not reasonable. Therefore, I find that the use of deadly force by North is not justified by Connecticut law. “
Soulemane’s mother told investigators that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 14 and may not have taken his medication on the day of the clash with police, which led to him becoming a combatant, the report said. of the Inspector General.
Soulemane’s family called for North to stand trial. His relatives and friends staged protests and vigils after police released a video of the shooting days after the incident. North, 31, was released on $ 50,000 bail and is due to appear in court on May 3, according to a press release from Devlin’s office.
North’s lawyer, Jeffrey Ment, declined to comment when approached by CNN. CNN contacted the Connecticut Police Union for comment.
The troops were not “in real or imminent danger of lethal force”, the report said
Soulemane, armed with a knife, stole a white Hyundai in Norwalk and then led police on a high-speed chase on Interstate 95 in New Haven, about 35 miles by car from Norwalk, Connecticut State Police said. Soulemane hit two cruisers and a civilian vehicle before being boxed by soldiers shortly after exiting the highway, police said.
Police footage shows a police officer – a West Haven police officer, according to the inspector general’s report – breaking the passenger’s windshield while other officers shouted at the driver to get out of the car. Attempts to use a stunning gun on Soulemane proved “ineffective”, a police statement said at the time.
“When the driver showed a weapon (later identified as a knife), a soldier at the scene fired his assigned pistol, hitting the driver,” the statement said.
The soldier, later identified as North, fired about seven shots through the driver’s windshield against Soulemane in the driver’s seat, according to footage.
Soulemane, a New Haven resident, has died at a hospital, police said.
In a seven-page statement that North presented in February 2020, North wrote that before the shooting, he was standing in front of the front driver’s window with his gun pulled out, watching Soulemane sit still as a West Haven police officer began trying to break front passenger window. .
North told a soldier standing on the passenger’s side to put his pistol in its holster and move to Taser because Soulemane looked unarmed, North wrote. North continued to hold his own pistol, “to provide deadly cover in case the suspect escalates,” and because the West Haven officer appeared to have only a truncheon and the soldier held only a taser, North wrote.
When the West Haven police officer broke the passenger’s window, Soulmain moved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a knife with a fixed blade, North writes. At that time, the head of the West Haven officer had fallen below the roof line of the vehicle and North believed that he would come in to try to get Soulemane out, North writes.
“While the suspect was holding the knife in his right hand, he abruptly began to move in the driver’s seat … I saw (the soldier) quickly approaching the open window of the passenger and I could not see more officers from West Haven. This led me to believe that the West Haven police officer had already begun to enter the suspicious vehicle, “North wrote.
“The suspect was moving and holding the knife in an aggressive manner, and it seemed to me that he was preparing to attack either (the other soldier) or the West Haven officer,” North wrote. “Based on these circumstances, I believed that (the soldier) and the West Haven officer were at imminent risk of serious physical injury or death and may have been stabbed in the neck or face when trying to enter the vehicle and The suspects were taken away. As a result, I fulfilled my obligation to use firearms to eliminate the threat. “
The other soldier testified that he fired a Taser at Soulemane before North fired, but that “the Taser did not appear to be effective because it did not appear to have penetrated” Soulemane’s clothing.
The inspector general’s report noted that the passenger door was always closed, locked and the only access point was the broken window.
Although Soulemane was holding a knife in the car, the soldiers at the scene were not in “no real or imminent danger of using deadly force against them,” the inspector general’s report said.
“Soulemane was in the driver’s seat of the Hyundai and (the fighters) were outside the vehicle,” the report said, which also said Soulemane could not open the driver’s door enough to get out because a police cruiser blocked it. he held a knife in his right hand, he did not use the knife against them, nor did he pose any immediate threat to it. “
Two police officers shouted that Soulemane was reaching for something, so it was “just unreasonable” to believe that one of the passengers on the passenger’s side would deliberately put himself in a deadly zone by crawling out the window, knowing that an armed suspect … was in the car, “the report said.
“A reasonable police officer would know that employees will not be in such a vulnerable position. Such a reasonable officer would also know that since they will not get into the car, they do not need protection from Soulemane’s knife attack,” the report reads.
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