The New Haven State’s Attorney has concluded the New Haven officer who shot a man police said rushed him with a knife was justified in his use of force.
The Connecticut State Police Central Division Major Crime Unit, at the direction of New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin, investigated the case.
On August 16, police, firefighters and EMS responded to 480 Ferry Street after receiving a 911 call. According to the report released by the state’s attorney, the caller, identified as Paula Rodriquez, told police her son was acting strangely and saying he wanted to be killed by police. She said her son was in possession of a knife and that he suffered from a history of mental illness.
The report noted that Rodriquez did not speak English so she communicated with dispatch through an interpreter.
When firefighters arrived they met Rodriquez and she reiterated the same information she told dispatch through a bilingual security guard, the report stated. She told them her son told her he wanted to commit “suicide by cop.”
New Haven Officer Brian Jackson entered the lobby to get an update from firefighters when Rodriquez’s son, Roberto Orsini-Rodriguez, came out of an elevator with a knife. There were other people in the lobby.
Witnesses reported Orsini-Rodriguez started coming toward Jackson and ignored commands to drop the knife at least twice, the report said. Witnesses also reported that Jackson was moving backward, away from Orsini-Rodriguez.
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The report said that Orsini-Rodriguez continued holding the knife “in an aggressive manner as through he was going to lunge forward.” Witnesses said Jackson fired twice when the distance between the two was between two and eight feet.
Orsini-Rodriguez fell to the ground, received medical treatment at the scene, and was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital for further treatment. He will survive.
The State’s Attorney concluded that Jackson’s use of force was both reasonable and justifiable to protect himself and others at the scene.
