by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
(Updated) The state inspector general’s office has begun a preliminary investigation into the death of a 34-year-old New Havener who had barricaded himself in his car with a gun by Edgewood Park Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Acting Police Chief David Zannelli said in a Monday morning interview with the Independent that the man “took his own life” after roughly seven hours of negotiations with the city police department’s SWAT and hostage-negotiation teams. He declined to share the man’s name at this time.
At around 10 a.m. Monday, state police published a press release about how the state’s Central District Major Crime Squad (CDMC) is investigating an “untimely death in New Haven.”
An accompanying state police report indicates that, on Sunday, the New Haven Police Department and the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office “requested assistance” from the state police “to process the scene and assume jurisdiction for an untimely death investigation.”
“The initial incident involved a barricaded subject and members of the New Haven and North Haven Police Departments,” the report continues. “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner responded and an autopsy is pending. The investigation is ongoing and remains active.”
Anyone with information on the matter is asked to contact CDMC Det. Daniel Dowesett at 203-393-4200.
Update: On Monday at 1:42 p.m., state Inspector General Eliot Prescott confirmed for the Independent that his office is “doing a preliminary investigation to determine whether I have statutory jurisdiction over this incident. Sometimes, my office needs to ascertain certain facts before deciding whether a full investigation is required. If I determine that I do not have jurisdiction, then any additional investigation would be done by the New Haven Police Department, one of the other local departments who may have had involvement in the incident, and/or the State Police. If I decide that this incident falls within my statutory jurisdiction, I will issue a press release informing the public that I am investigating.”
The state inspector general has statutory jurisdiction over four different types of incidents: when a police officer uses lethal force regardless of whether or not someone is injured, when a police officer uses non-lethal force and someone dies, when someone dies while in the custody of law enforcement or the state Department of Correction (DOC), and when a police officer fails to intervene to stop another police officer from using excessive force.
Asked for an update, a state police spokesperson said at 1:27 p.m. Monday that any inquiries regarding this investigation need to be directed to the inspector general’s office.
A law enforcement official familiar with the case said that city police officers did not use lethal force in the incident, though they did use “less-lethal options,” including a “hard-foam dart.”
The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) first posted on the social media site X at 8:40 p.m. Saturday about the unfolding incident. In that post, NHPD reported that city police officers were “out with a barricaded subject in the area of Edgewood Ave/Pendleton Street. Please avoid the area.”
At 8 a.m. on Sunday, NHPD published a follow-up post on X indicating that the Connecticut State Police had taken over the investigation and that the scene was still “active” at that time.
In a statement provided to the Independent on Sunday at 10:17 a.m., a state police spokesperson wrote, “Preliminary information shows that the Central District Major Crime squad was requested to the scene” of Edgewood Avenue and Pendleton Street near Edgewood Park “to investigate a suspicious incident. CDMC has assumed this investigation as it involves New Haven PD and North Haven PD officers and a subject. We can confirm that there were no officer involved shootings. We ask that the public keep away from the area as investigators continue their work on processing and clearing the scene before the St. Patrick’s Day Parade begins. This is all of the information available at this time.”
The law enforcement official familiar with the case said that the 34-year-old man had been wanted by city police “for a serious domestic violence incident” that included charges of strangulation, first-degree threatening, assault, and breach of police. The official said that the man allegedly “pistol-whipped his girlfriend and put her in the hospital.”
City police investigators ultimately found the man armed and in his car near Edgewood Park Saturday evening. The man allegedly fired his weapon over the course of the incident, which played out across roughly seven hours.
North Haven police were present after New Haven put out a mutual aid call.
Zannelli credited the city’s SWAT and hostage-negotiation teams for doing all they could over the course of an extended period to keep everyone safe, including the surrounding community, while trying to get the man in the car to give himself up. Zannelli said he was in touch with the state’s attorney’s office and the inspector general’s office, and that he called for the state police to assume the investigation into how the local cops handled the matter.