“It has been a long four years,” said Omo Mohammed, mother of Mubarak Soulemane.
On Thursday afternoon, Soulemane’s family spoke publicly for the first time since a six-person jury acquitted state trooper Brian North in the January 2020 shooting death of the 19-year-old after a police pursuit that ended in West Haven.
“The whole process was just mentally taxing,” said Mariyann Soulemane, Mubarak's sister.
The family said while they respect the verdict, they are not happy about it and do not believe justice was served.
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“The real justice would be my brother being here today and not having been killed so ruthlessly the way he was,” Soulemane said.
Last Friday, Trooper North walked out of a Milford courtroom a free man after a jury found him not guilty of manslaughter or any lesser charges in connection with the death of Soulemane.
During the trial, North said after Soulemane led police on a high-speed pursuit, he saw the 19-year-old holding a knife and opened fire to protect other officers.
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“It's the first time in 17 or 18 years that any law enforcement officer, state or municipal, has been prosecuted for shooting someone, so it almost never happens,” said family attorney Mark Arons.
The Soulemane family and their attorney are now looking ahead at the next steps.
“We are going to move on, we have another step to take, which is we have a civil case, and we want it to be done soon,” Mohammed said.
Arons said it is very difficult to prosecute and convict police officers. He hopes the trial of Trooper North was a step in the right direction to holding local and state police accountable.
“It's just going to take time for citizens -- the people who serve on juries -- to get comfortable with holding police accountable,” Arons said.
