was fired<\/a> by the Hartford mayor after the fatal shooting of Steven Jones on Feb. 27. The shooting drew wide public outcry and questions about the police department\u2019s policies when responding to people in mental distress.<\/p>\nJones, 55, who had a history of mental illness, was holding a large knife on a city street when officers arrived on that winter day.<\/p>\n
Police body camera video shows three officers, over several minutes, repeatedly telling Jones to drop a knife. The officers also tell him they\u2019re there to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteve, you\u2019re OK. We\u2019re going to make sure you\u2019re OK,\u201d Officer James Prignano says. \u201cJust drop the knife. We\u2019re going to go talk to somebody, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones can\u2019t be heard saying anything in the videos.<\/p>\n
About 12 minutes after the 911 call, Magnano arrives, draws his pistol and shouts at Jones to drop the knife, telling him, \u201cYou\u2019re going to get shot.\u201d A woman is heard screaming, \u201cDon\u2019t shoot him!\u201d<\/p>\n
The videos show Prignano motioning at Magnano, appearing to tell him to back away. As Jones slowly walks toward Magnano, the officer gives a final warning before shooting at him nine times. Jones died at a hospital four days later.<\/p>\n
Connecticut Inspector General Eliot Prescott said an investigation found Magnano \u201cfailed to make reasonable attempts to use non-lethal force\u201d and that Jones was not an imminent threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the extent Magnano subjectively believed that Jones posed a risk of serious physical injuries to bystanders in the area, Magnano made no effort to move bystanders out of any perceived harm\u2019s way,\u201d the arrest warrant noted. <\/p>\n
In his own incident report, Magnano said he was \u201cfearful of Jones making a sudden lunge towards either an officer or citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Rutkauski, president of the local police union, said Magnano was defending himself and other officers. He said the shooting was justified and that Magnano’s arrest has shaken the department and should concern citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis warrant is an absolute attack on the foundation of justice and the constitutional rights of every citizen,\u201d Rutkauski said after the hearing.<\/p>\n
Asked how Magnano was doing, Rutkauski said, \u201cHe\u2019s 23. He\u2019s a mess. They told him he was a criminal for doing what he was trained to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Jones\u2019 family, has a different opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cStevie was in the middle of a mental health crisis, and instead of receiving the care he needed, he was shot nine times,\u201d Crump said at the time of Magnano’s arrest.<\/p>\n
More than 60 police officers gathered outside the courthouse to support Magnano. A handful of Jones\u2019 supporters, including local NAACP officials. also went to court. Jones\u2019 relatives did not attend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARTFORD, Conn. — A white police officer in Connecticut who repeatedly shot a Black man suffering a mental health crisis while his colleagues tried to defuse the situation made his first court appearance Friday on a manslaughter charge. Joseph Magnano did not speak during the brief hearing in Superior Court. He later hugged officers who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1newslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}