Third Deadly Shooting by Police in Connecticut in 2020 Again Shows Need to Change Police Use of Force Standard

HARTFORD – Waterbury police employees shot and killed Edward Gendron yesterday in Waterbury. The following is a statement from David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut:

“It is less than three weeks into 2020, and police have already shot and killed three people this year in Connecticut. Police violence is a pandemic in this state, and it must end. As an arm of the government, police should answer to democratic checks and balances, including and especially when they kill someone. Connecticut’s current legal standard for police uses of force gives too much leeway to police, as it enables them to avoid accountability for killing people even when other safe, feasible options are available. No one should die at the hands of police. We call on the legislature to save lives by adopting a stricter legal definition of what state law calls ‘justified’ police use of deadly force.”

According to a Danbury News-Times report in 2019, police in Connecticut shot and killed at least 24 people from 2013 to January of 2019.

On January 2, Ansonia police shot and killed Michael Gregory. On January 15, Connecticut State Police shot and killed Mubarak Soulemane. On January 20, Waterbury Police shot and killed Edward Gendron. A fourth person, Justin Griffin, also died in Milford police custody in January.