In April, an apparently suicideal man took his 2-year-old son hostage after shooting the boy’s mother. A detailed account shows how Conn. police managed the crisis.
By David Owens
The Hartford Courant
HARTFORD, Conn. — In the moments after Alfredo “Junior” Ferrer allegedly shot and mortally wounded his girlfriend Amanda Realie, the three Coventry police officers working that afternoon were quickly overwhelmed.
Ferrer, 43, was moving around behind the Bidwell Tavern at 1260 Main St., carrying his 2-year-old son and a .38-caliber revolver. The situation was bad and on its way to getting worse, with a toxic combination of alcohol, a gun, a child hostage and a convicted felon apparently bent on suicide. Two off-duty officers quickly arrived to help, said Coventry Police Chief Mark Palmer.
Coventry police Sgt. Brian Fiore, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene about 5:45 p.m. April 14, knew he had to prevent anyone else from getting hurt and Ferrer from getting away. He also knew he needed help from nearby police departments and the regional SWAT team, known as the Capital Regional Emergency Services Team.
In less than an hour, the situation was over. The child was safe, no one else had been hurt, and Ferrer was in custody.
“I don’t think we could have hoped for a better outcome,” Palmer said.
“It was extremely chaotic, as chaotic as any of the events I have encountered in being a SWAT officer for over 30 years,” added Glastonbury police Capt. David Caron, the CREST commander.
What follows is the first detailed account of that hour, where police found themselves confronted with a nightmarish situation and ended it by placing themselves in the line of fire to save the child. It is assembled from police officers’ reports, interviews and court testimony.
The page to CREST officers, sent at 5:56 p.m., was chilling: “Suicidal man in a vehicle w/gun behind the Bidwell Tavern, baby in car.” Moments later CREST officers learned the man had already shot a woman believed to be his wife or girlfriend.
“It was one of the worst scenarios you could imagine - an armed person with a child who had just committed a serious assault at best, a murder at worst,” Palmer said. “You don’t know what his next step is. You don’t know what his state of mind is.”
While Fiore, Coventry police Lt. Nancy Thurnauer and others worked to prevent the situation from getting worse, CREST officers converged on Coventry. Manchester police Officer Don Poist was among the first to arrive in Coventry, at 6:09 p.m.
Fiore, also a CREST member, was at the Bidwell tracking Ferrer, talking to him and trying to contain him.
“It was obvious Coventry had done a good job securing the area, but they were overwhelmed,” Caron said.
An agitated and apparently intoxicated Ferrer continued to move around the parking lot behind the Bidwell with his son and the gun. At one point he returned to the apartment where he allegedly shot Realie, then was back in the parking lot, again toting his son and the gun. He clutched his son to his right hip with his right arm and carried the gun in his right hand. In his left hand he carried a liquor bottle, from which he drank.
He demanded that police summon an ambulance for Realie. Fiore responded that he would, as soon as Ferrer released the child and dropped the gun.
“I told him he could get an ambulance if he put the firearm down,” Fiore testified at a recent court hearing, adding, “he told me you’re going to have to [expletive] kill me.”
Thurnauer had been talking to Ferrer, trying to get him to release the child. Ferrer initially responded to Thurnauer, but refused to release the child.
Ferrer, a dishwasher at the tavern, was walking in and out of a shed and at times appeared to be taking cover behind a large propane tank. The Bidwell was full of customers and employees. Coventry police dispatchers safeguarded those people by directing them to lock the restaurant’s doors, then head to the basement.
By 6:25 p.m, Vernon police Sgt. Kevin Fleming, Vernon Officer Tim Gunnoud and South Windsor Officer Matt Mainieri, all CREST members, had joined Poist and a state trooper behind a building just north of the Bidwell.
Caron told the CREST officers their priority was the child and they were authorized to shoot Ferrer if necessary.
The situation was getting worse, Poist would later write in his report.
“It was apparent the suspect was becoming more irrational and less responsive to Lt. Thurnauer,” Poist wrote. “Without warning, the suspect said in a clear voice ‘May God forgive me’ as he began to walk towards the rear of the restaurant and an adjoining alley."As Ferrer held his child in his right arm, he had his finger on the trigger of the pistol.The CREST officers ran from their position of cover. Fleming, Gunnoud and Poist fanned out in front of Ferrer, who had shifted the child to his left hip.
“I believed that I could not allow the suspect to leave our sight and that our duty was to protect the life of the child,” Fleming would later write in his report. South Windsor Officer Matt Mainieri went around the building. “The suspect was moving toward the street,” Fleming wrote. “He was facing me with the gun still in his right hand at about waist level and the child still on his left hip. I covered the suspect with my rifle and he brought the gun up and put the muzzle in his mouth.”
Fleming yelled several times at Ferrer “don’t do it” and told him to let the child go. Poist said that it appeared Ferrer tried to pull the trigger. Ferrer also pointed the gun at his temple, Poist wrote.
Ferrer stopped, then dropped the gun to his right hip, then threw the gun toward Fleming. The officers moved in.
Poist wrapped his arm around the boy and tried to pull him away from Ferrer while Fleming wrestled Ferrer to the ground. Ferrer continued to struggle until Mainieri used a Taser on him. It was over and the child was safe.Realie, 27, the pregnant mother of Ferrer’s two sons, died April 17 at Hartford Hospital. Ferrer remains in custody, his bail set at $2 million, on charges of murder, first-degree assault, assault of a pregnant person, breach of peace, criminal possession of a firearm, criminal use of a firearm, unlawful discharge of a firearm, two counts of risk of injury to a minor and three counts of reckless endangerment.
Copyright 2008 The Hartford Courant