HARTFORD, Conn. — The civil case against Connecticut State Police Trooper Brian North in the shooting death of Mubarak Soulemane could end in a settlement if the parties follow through with their recent agreement to mediate in court later this summer.
The legal firm representing Soulemane's family announced Tuesday that the civil case against North and several members of the West Haven Police Department have agreed to mediate in court on Aug. 4.
If the case resorts to going to trial, the family will bring three experts to testify. The experts are Greg Meyer, ret. Capt. of the LAPD, Darrin Porcher, Ph.D. and ret. Lt. of the NYPD, and Jonathan Metzl, Ph.D., MD, who is a professor at Vanderbilt University and an expert on the interplay of race, guns and mental illness.
"The family of Mubarak Soulemane has endured a long and difficult journey over the past three and one-half years, and are now hopeful of a fair and just settlement of the civil case," said the family's attorney, Mark Arons.
North is also facing criminal charges in Soulemane's death. North was arrested in April 2022 and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter. He is due back in court on July 6, 2023, for a pre-trial in the criminal case.
North fatally shot Mubarak Soulemane on January 15, 2020, as Soulemane sat in the driver’s seat of a car in West Haven, where a high-speed chase ended and police boxed in the car. Officials say North posted $50,000 bail, was placed on paid administrative leave and his police powers were suspended.
Soulemane was a community college student who had schizophrenia, his family said in 2022.
A report released by Inspector General Robert Devlin’s office said the shooting was not justified. Devlin concluded despite North's claim that he shot to protect other officers from a knife-wielding Soulemane, who was in a car, by himself, nobody on scene faced actual or imminent danger.
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