State Trooper Arrested In Shooting That Killed Man, 19, In West Haven

WEST HAVEN, CT — A Connecticut State Police Trooper has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting that killed a 19-year-old New Haven man in West Haven in 2020, according to officials.

State Trooper Brian North was charged with first-degree manslaughter with a firearm, Inspector General Robert J. Devlin Jr. announced Wednesday. North, who turned himself in on Tuesday and has been placed on administrative leave, was released after posting a $50,000 bond and is expected to appear in Milford Superior Court on May 3.

Devlin said the investigation into the fatal shooting of Mubarak Soulemane predated the creation of the Office of the Inspector General and inspectors from the Division of Criminal Justice were the principal investigators.

Soulemane, who police said was armed with a knife, was shot by North on Campbell Avenue in West Haven after a Norwalk-to-West Haven chase in a carjacking incident in January 2020. Soulemane was treated at the scene and taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

See also: Graphic Police Video Shows State Trooper Firing Fatal Gunshots

The incident began unfolding around 4:35 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2020 when Norwalk police responded to a reported armed carjacking in their city. Norwalk officers found and attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver engaged police in a pursuit on Route 7.

Norwalk police terminated the pursuit and broadcast a Be On The Lookout, noting that the driver was armed with a knife.

State police troopers in Bridgeport received reports that a white Hyundai was traveling north on I-95 in a "reckless manner," driving both along the right shoulder and center median at a high rate of speed, officials said at the time. The car was seen on state Department of Transportation cameras at 4:46 p.m. speeding in the median near Exit 22 on I-95 North. Police dispatch monitored the car via the DOT cameras until state troopers were able to get behind it in the area of Exit 36.

Troopers attempted to stop the car, but the driver struck two state police cruisers and continued on the highway before getting off Exit 43 onto Campbell Avenue in West Haven, officials said.

On Campbell Avenue, the Hyundai struck a vehicle and was boxed in by state police. State troopers and West Haven police attempted to get the driver out of the car and initially deployed a Taser, which was ineffective, according to officials.

When the driver displayed a weapon, which was later determined to be a knife, North fired his gun and struck Soulemane, who later died from his injuries, police said.

The other state troopers involved in the incident were Trooper Joshua Jackson, who has been with state police for more than four years, and Trooper First Class Ross Dalling, who has been on the force for more than seven years. North was the only trooper to fire his weapon.

Devlin also released on Wednesday his 133-page report on the case. The report noted that Soulemane was diagnosed with schizophrenia at 14 and his mother was concerned that he wasn’t taking his medication while she was out of the country at the time of the incident.

North told investigators that he believed Jackson and a West Haven police officer were at “imminent risk of serious physical injury or death, and could have been stabbed in the neck or face as they attempted to enter the vehicle and remove the suspect,” according to Devlin’s report. “As a result, I discharged my duty firearm to eliminate the threat.”

In the report, Devlin wrote that only 36 seconds “elapsed between North taking a position next to the driver window and his firing his gun through that window.”

“Would a reasonable officer have made further attempts to talk to Soulemane either himself or possibly waiting until an officer with crisis intervention training could respond?” Devlin wrote in the report. “[West Haven Police Officer Robert] Rappa told Inspectors that he broke the window to communicate with Soulemane, and facilitate the use of less lethal means to gain control of him. A reasonable police officer would have realized that the police were in control of the situation and the opportunity existed to take a tactical pause to explore the use of methods other than deadly force.

“North fired seven shots. Was that reasonable? It is certainly possible that one shot might have disabled Soulemane from attacking others yet not kill him. The law is clear that 20/20 hindsight is inappropriate in evaluating an officer’s conduct given the split second decisions officers must make in dangerous situations. The law is also clear, however, that the officer’s conduct must be reasonable to be justified.

“In the present case, that standard of reasonableness was not met.”

In his conclusion, Devlin wrote that the investigation established that North’s shooting of Soulemane “was not justified.”

Read the full 133-page report here.