By Alex Wood, Hana Ikramuddin, Brian Zahn
The Register Citizen, Torrington, Conn.
WEST HAVEN, Conn. — The man who was fatally shot by police last week at a local car wash “appeared to fire one round” that smashed the driver’s side front window of his vehicle before the officers returned fire, the state inspector general’s office said Monday.
The preliminary report identifies the man who died as New Haven resident Jebrell Conley, 36. The shooting occurred around 5 p.m. Thursday at the Splash Car Wash on the Boston Post Road near the New Haven line.
The two New Haven police officers who shot at Conley have been placed on paid administrative leave, New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said during a news conference Monday.
Jacobson said “I believe our officers used appropriate force.”
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker also told reporters Monday that “it appears to me officers used appropriate force.”
“We don’t want to do this. We don’t want to shoot people,” Jacobson said.
One of the officers who fired his weapon, New Haven Police Sgt. Francisco Sanchez, has been with the department for 12 years. Sanchez shot a suspect in 2019 while officers were trying to apprehend him on an arrest warrant, according to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice. It was not a fatal shooting, however, and Sanchez was deemed justified in using such force after a review by the state’s attorney in New Haven.
The report on Thursday’s shooting says the officers, who are members of the New Haven Police Department Violent Crime Task Force, had received notice that a warrant had been issued for Conley’s arrest.
Jacobson said Conley was associated with a local gang. The warrant that police were attempting to serve Conley with charged him with interference with commerce by robbery, and carrying, using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, according to a federal arrest warrant released by New Haven police.
The report identifies the three officers who fired on Conley as Connecticut State Police Sgt. Colin Richter, New Haven Police Officer Michael Valente, who has been with the agency for 11 years, and Sanchez.
The officers located Conley outside a Hyundai Tucson he was driving in the car wash’s “bay area,” where customers vacuum their cars, the report says. As the officers tried to block him using their police vehicles, Conley spotted them and got into the Tucson, the report continues.
Conley was the only occupant of the vehicle, Jacobson said. In an attempt to flee, he got back in the car and reversed into a police vehicle, Jacobson said, and Sanchez was attempting to pull Conley from the vehicle when Conley fired a single shot, breaking the window.
The officers then fired back at him, the report says.
The officers placed themselves between Conley and bystanders, Jacobson said.
“Officers recovered a handgun, with a high capacity magazine, from the area where Conley had fallen from the vehicle,” the report says. “Initial inspection of the handgun suggests that it had jammed after firing one round.”
A video taken by Sanchez’s body-worn camera showed a gun fall out of the Tucson ahead of Conley and an officer pick it up from just behind where he fell. The gun had been stolen in Waterbury, Jacobson said.
“Several rounds struck Conley who fell out of the Hyundai Tucson onto the parking lot,” the report says. “Officers then commenced to provide Conley medical aid. He was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.”
Officers were not injured, but were taken to the hospital as a precaution, New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said during a news conference late Thursday evening near the scene of the shooting.
Jacobson said the Office of the Inspector General will determine the exact number of shots fired at the scene and release that information at a later date.
This is a developing story and will be updated when more information becomes available.
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