A white Connecticut state police trooper has been acquitted of all charges in the death of a 19-year-old Black community college student who was shot as he sat in a stolen car while holding a knife.
19-year-old migrant worker, once charged in death of St. Johns County deputy, is released from custodyLocal retired Navy pilot weighs in on possible impact of US Army sergeant accused of selling military secrets to ChinaState Trooper Brian North, center, listens as a jury reads a verdict of not guilty on all counts in Connecticut Superior Court in Milford, Conn., Friday, March 15, 2024.
Relatives and friends of Soulemane, including his mother and sister, declined to comment while leaving the courthouse. Mark Arons, a lawyer for the family, said they were devastated by the verdict. Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut State Conference of the NAACP, called the acquittal “a major atrocity.”
But Inspector General Robert Devlin, who investigates all police uses of deadly force in the state, said no officers were in danger because the stolen car was boxed in and Soulemane couldn’t go anywhere. He said officers made no attempt to de-escalate the situation. Soulemane struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to his family. His mother, sister and girlfriend, who testified at the trial, said in the days leading up to the shooting, Soulemane’sAccording to police, the events that led to Soulemane's death began when he displayed the knife at an AT&T store in Norwalk and unsuccessfully tried to steal a cellphone.
“I was afraid that he was going to be stabbed in the face or the neck, which obviously can be a fatal injury,” North testified.
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