By Lisa Backus
Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
STAMFORD — Video released Tuesday of an Oaklawn Avenue eviction standoff last week that led to gunfire, the suicide death of the homeowner and the discovery of a decomposing body shows officers shouting as a man was firing on two armored vehicles that were deployed in an attempt to get him out of the home safely.
Police said 63-year-old Jed Parkington exchanged gunfire with officers numerous times during the standoff on Dec. 2 before officers heard a single gunshot from inside the home. Parkington died of gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to the medical examiner.
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A second person whose remains were found in the home when police located Parkington’s body had died from a homicide with “blunt impact injuries of the head and torso with gagging,” according to state Inspector General Eliot Prescott, who released a preliminary report on the officers’ use of force Tuesday morning.
A drone sent into the house to check on Parkington found him dead, and officers also discovered a “possible pipe bomb,” grenades and Molotov cocktails “all about the house,” Stamford Chief of Police Timothy Shaw said at a news conference last week.
While searching the home, authorities also discovered a second body, on the second floor, that was “concealed and appeared to be in a decomposed state,” according to Shaw.
Stamford Assistant Police Chief Richard Conklin said Thursday that the state medical examiner took the second body late in the evening on Dec. 3. The identity of the body was not available as of Tuesday morning, nor were the person’s age or sex. It was not disclosed for how long the person may have been dead.
According to Prescott’s report, Parkington was wearing a “military uniform shirt” with a “Nazi insignia” on the collar when a marshal arrived to issue the eviction on Dec. 2. He also appeared to be wearing a utility belt with items the marshal thought may have been explosives, Prescott said. Parkington’s gear and outfit prompted the marshal to call Stamford police, the report said.
Parkington’s death is being investigated by the state Office of the Inspector General, along with the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Unit. Stamford Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit, working with state police, is leading the investigation into the death of the second person.
Shaw said last week that detectives planned to speak to Parkington’s wife again, as well as any other family members, as part of the investigation.
Shaw said the incident began as an eviction call. Conklin said a marshal arrived at the home around 9 a.m. Dec. 2, at which point Parkington pushed his wife out of the door and told the marshal something to the effect of, “Get her out of here, this isn’t going to end well.”
Conklin said that, as of Thursday, investigators believed Parkington and his wife were the only ones residing in the home at the time of the incident. Online eviction documents listed three other people as living at the address.
The Stamford Police Department’s hostage negotiation team arrived at 9:44 a.m. and tried to talk with Parkington to get him to peacefully surrender, an audio recording shows. The negotiator can be heard asking Parkington whether he was hungry, the audio revealed. Parkington then said his father fought in World War II and told him how to “defend the house,” according to the audio.
Parkington later admitted he had been trying for years to find other reasonably priced housing but none was available, the audio recording shows. “How can they just throw people out if they don’t have any place to put them,” other than a shelter, Parkington can be heard saying on the audio.
The department’s Special Response Team also responded at around 11:40 a.m., police said. Video released Tuesday shows officers inside a Bearcat armored vehicle yelling as Parkington fired gunshots that struck the truck and damaged the windshield. Someone inside the vehicle repeatedly told the other officers to remain calm as Parkington continued a barrage of gunfire, the videos showed. The officers eventually were forced to back off for their own safety, Prescott said in the report.
Inside one of the Bearcats, and officer can be heard calling for more armored vehicles because they couldn’t see out of the windshield, a video released by Prescott shows. Seconds later, an officer releases a drone, which Parkington shoots down. That video started with a loud bang and an officer making the observation that Parkington had thrown a brick at the Bearcat. “He’s not dead, he’s still in the window,” an officer can be heard saying in the video.
At one point, an officer asks whether Parkington is “still alive?” In a second video, another officer can be seen firing several shots from an opening in the armored vehicle.
Shaw said “gunfire was exchanged numerous times” between Parkington and the Special Response Team during the standoff. Three officers fired back, Lt. Jose Alvarez, Capt. Christopher Baker and Sgt. Matthew Romano, Prescott said in the report.
Police tried for several hours to use non-lethal means including flash bangs to get Parkington to surrender safely, Prescott said.
Parkington, his wife, and seven other people living at the home had been given a notice to surrender possession in April, according to a complaint in state court. The woman whose name was listed on the mortgage wrote in a court filing that she, her husband and her dog would be evicted on Dec. 2, and asked the court to allow them to stay through the holidays.
Her husband was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 and had lost his job in 2014, she wrote in the filing.
The judge denied that request, noting that while he was “not unsympathetic to the defendant,” the bank that filed the case was “entitled to possession of the premises.”
Staff Writers Liz Hardaway, Peter Yankowski and Tyler Fedor contributed to this story.
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