Judge Rules Newtown Police Not Responsible After Mentally Disturbed Brookfield Man Shoots Nurse

Editor’s note: This article was published earlier this week. Here it is again, in case you missed it.

By WENDY ANN MITCHELL (Patch Staff)

A Danbury Superior Court judge has ruled in favor of the town of Newtown after a former nurse at Danbury Hospital accused the town’s police of enabling a shooting which injured him in 2010, according to the CT Law Tribune.

Just after midnight on March 1, 2010, an 85-year-old mentally disturbed Brookfield man entered the Newtown Police Department telling officers he needed help because he was hearing voices, according to reports. The police called an ambulance and the man was sent to Danbury Hospital.

The next day that same man, Stanley Lupienski pointed a loaded gun at two nurses and shot a third nurse while involved in a scuffle over the gun. Andrew Hull, a Marine Corps veteran and former Danbury Hospital nurse who stepped in to help, sustained serious injuries from the shooting.

Two years later, Hull and his wife Erica of Bethel, filed a lawsuit against Newtown. New Haven lawyer David Rosen represented the Hulls and said in a letter that the shooting was “enabled by the actions and inactions of the Town and its officers” alleging “negligence and/or civil rights violations.”

Danbury Superior Court Judge Sheila Ozalis ruled in favor of the town of Newtown stating the town was not responsible for the shooting because officers had not placed Lupienski under arrest and therefore did not have to search him.

Click here to read more on the CT Law Tribune’s website.