Protest Held in Police Shooting Case

Based on reporting by Antonio C. Lavoy, Sr.

A demonstration was held in front of the New Britain Police Station, protesting the Fairfield State’s Attorney’s decision to clear five police officers in the shooting incident on December 14, 2017.

In that December 14, 2017 incident, the five police officers, according to the State’s Attorney report, fired a total of twenty-eight shots, killing twenty year old Zoe Dowdell, who was allegedly driving the Toyota Paseo involved in the incident. Fifteen year old Caleb Tisdol was also reportedly injured and eighteen year old Noah Young was also allegedly in the vehicle in the in the area of Chapman Court.

At the demonstration on Saturday, January 26, 2019, protesters questioned the decision of John Smriga, Fairfield State’s Attorney, a state prosecutor, in which he determined that the five officers were all justified in firing the shots that they fired.

Protesters held signs and chanted, “Black lives matter,” outside of the New Britain Police Station on Chestnut Street.

In the 2017 incident, the State’s Attorney’s report said, the officers were acting,

in an attempt to locate individuals wanted in connection with a series of carjackings and robberies that had occurred recently in New Britain and nearby cities. In one incident, passengers in a vehicle were robbed at gunpoint while a female passenger was forcibly groped and subjected to degrading sexual comments about her body. In another incident, the victim was “pistol whipped.” In a third, which occurred in the evening hours of December 11, 2017, the victim was attempting to back out of her driveway when a vehicle pulled behind her and blocked her exit. She reported that three or four individuals exited the vehicle and approached her car. Two of the individuals began to strike the car with guns. The victim managed to flee her assailants, who opened fire on her vehicle as she was escaping. At least one gunshot struck her vehicle.

Discussing the shots fired by Officer Kyle Jones, Detective Christopher Kiely, Detective Michael Slavin, Detective Marcin Ratajczak and Detective Chad Nelson, the Fairfield State’s Attorney’s report said that,

A total of 28 shots were fired within a span of approximately 10 seconds while the car maneuvered to escape the police barricade. Subsequent examination by Connecticut State Police investigators revealed that 13 of these were observed to have impacted the Toyota. A 14th was recovered from an uninvolved civilian vehicle. The impact locations of the other 14 bullets are unknown.

Zoe Dowdell, the operator of the vehicle, sustained gunshot wounds from police bullets to both thighs, the neck and the head as well as a graze wound to his left hand.

The organization, “Self-Defense Brigade,” says that it organized the demonstration. The group organized a previous demonstration held in New Britain on September 15, 2018.