By Justin Muszynski
Hartford Courant
HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Inspector General has released body camera footage showing the moments that led to an officer-involved shooting in Hartford on Saturday, leaving a man in critical but stable condition.
The bodycam footage was released Tuesday along with Inspector General Robert Devlin Jr .’s preliminary report on the shooting, which occurred following the report of a disturbance involving an armed man and subsequent car crash, the report said.
According to Devlin, officers with the Hartford Police Department received a report around 8:15 p.m. of a disturbance at 730 Maple Ave., which reportedly involved a man who displayed a firearm. The man who allegedly had the gun was identified as 48-year-old Alexander Garay of Hartford, who fled the scene, the preliminary report said.
Officers with the police department’s Street Crime Unit spotted a vehicle Garay was believed to be driving as he left the scene and began following him before he crashed at the intersection of Broad and West Preston Streets. Body camera footage from Officer Gabrielle Arruda, which was released with the preliminary report, showed that Garay struck the rear of a red sedan.
The portion of the footage that was released begins with Arruda and Officer Elvis Martinez shouting for Garay to show his hands as he can be seen moving around in the driver’s seat responding with inaudible remarks. Arruda is on foot on the driver’s side of Garay’s vehicle, while Martinez appears to be standing on the passenger side.
The vehicle rolls back slightly before someone, apparently Martinez, can be heard saying “Get him out of the car,” the footage shows. After trying the driver’s side door, Arruda begins hitting the driver’s side window until it shatters, at which point Garay leans out of the window for a moment and says very quickly “no, no, no, no, no” when Arruda calls for him to get out, according to the footage. He then says “get away from me” multiple times as Arruda deploys her taser, which Devlin said was ineffective.
By this point, the footage shows Martinez approach the driver’s side of the vehicle and try to open the door before returning to the passenger side of the SUV. Arruda then smashes out the rear driver’s side window as Garay climbs to the backseat and says “yo, yo, yo, leave me alone, leave me alone,” according to the footage.
Arruda then calls out to Martinez that “he’s grabbing something” just before Martinez can be seen trying to grab Garay through the passenger side rear window, according to the bodycam footage. Arruda points her taser at Garay for a few seconds before shouting out that Garay has something in his hand. She calls out multiple times for him to “drop the weapon,” the footage shows.
Arruda then tells Martinez to “watch out” before firing two rounds at Garay. The portion of the video footage that was released ends with Martinez backing away from the vehicle and radioing in “shots fired, shots fired.”
According to Devlin, Garay was treated at the scene by officers before being taken to Hartford Hospital, where he remained in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday. Devlin said police recovered a loaded Taurus Arms 9mm pistol near Garay when he was removed from the vehicle.
Lt. Aaron Boisvert of the Hartford Police Department said Tuesday that detectives with the Major Crimes Division found that Garay has been disqualified from possessing a firearm because of a prior felony conviction. Boisvert also said authorities discovered that the vehicle involved was unregistered.
Police obtained a warrant for Garay’s arrest on charges of criminal possession of a firearm, interfering with police, operating a motor vehicle without a license, operating an unregistered motor vehicle and possession of narcotics.
Boisvert said Garay was served with the warrant in the hospital. He is being held on a $750,000 bond.
The shooting is being investigated by Devlin’s office to determine if Arruda’s use of deadly force was justified under Connecticut law.
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