Wethersfield Police Respond To Call For Father-Son Fight

WETHERSFIELD, CT — Police responded to a call for a father and son in a physical fight in a parking lot of Silas Deane Highway Monday in which the son was repeatedly punching the father in the head. When officers arrived on scene, they found several bystanders had restrained the teen on the ground.

However, the teen was still "actively combative."

"Rather than use physical force," a police Facebook post reads, "that was probably warranted but would have surely resulted in the teenager being injured, Officer Malinowski did a great job to first recognize and confirm that the teenager had autism and that this was not a typical assault but rather a medical/psychological related incident.

Police noted that due to "great communication between officers" responding to the call, they were able to use de-escalation and physical force training so that no injuries occurred.

"Officer Veilleux arrived a short time later and due to his own personal familiarity and knowledge of behaviors of children who have autism, immediately recognized that the need for physical force in this situation would have been counterproductive."