GROTON — The family of a Groton firefighter says state police provoked him to commit suicide during a standoff in 2012.
The Day of New London reports that the estate of Timothy Devine says in an affidavit filed July 2 in federal court that he was still talking to a crisis negotiator when troopers fired rounds of non-lethal munitions.
A lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in New Haven claims that Devine offered to give up his gun to a friend. The filing says troopers reloaded when a trooper reported him down but not incapacitated.
Matthew B. Beizer, an assistant attorney general who represents the troopers, says they may not be sued because they were acting in their official capacities. He said the troopers were trying to save Devine’s life.
