MILFORD, Conn. — Connecticut State Trooper Brian North is the first Connecticut law enforcement officer in 17 years to be arrested following a fatal line of duty shooting. His first court appearance attracted quite a few folks on both sides of this tragedy Tuesday.
Law enforcement from across the region arrived, as a group, at the Milford Superior Court in support of Trooper Brian North, who stands accused of first-degree manslaughter in the January 2020 shooting death of New Haven resident Mubarak Soulemane.
"Regardless of who it is, when our troopers are what we believe to be prosecuted for doing their job we will defend them," said Andrew Matthews, the Executive Director of the Connecticut State Police Union.
But, the family of the 19-year-old victim, who led police on a lengthy and dangerous pursuit, after allegedly displaying a knife in a cellphone store and stealing a car, was offended by the trooper's support.
"Yes, I feel in my heart they were here to try to intimidate us but there is no officer or any trooper who will intimidate us," said Omo Klusum Mohammed, the mother of Mubarak Soulemane. "We are here to stand for justice."
Inspector General Robert Devlin, a retired judge, whose investigation led to North's arrest, is the prosecutor in this case. He's concluded North's use of force was not justified.
That police officer did not have to take that shot," said Hawk Newsome of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York. "Anybody who is objective-minded would've looked at that shooting and said that was a murder."
In addition to law enforcement, the creators of the Blue Lives Matter Connecticut Facebook page, Cathleen Walsh and Amy Bourdon, were on hand.
"The (body camera) video could be damning but you have to look at all of the specifics of what he went through," Walsh said. "There were two other cops on the other side of the car with a broken window they try to taser. The suspect was still moving and had a weapon."
"If more troopers like Trooper North are put in a position where they have to worry more about what inspector Devlin's report is going to say, as opposed to defending the lives of the people that they serve within the general public, then we are headed down a really slippery slope," Bourdon said.
But putting cops on notice with new police accountability laws is a good thing, according to Soulemane family's attorney Mark Arons.
"Police training and tactics must change," Arons says. "The use of deadly force must be the last resort."
He added that the 19-year-old's death will ultimately help save lives moving forward.
North will be back in court in Milford on June 2
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