NORWICH, Conn — The Norwich Police Department is releasing videos from several officer’s body-worn cameras and dash cameras captured during an incident that occurred the night of June 29 at Jenkins Park.
During the incident, which police said was an unpermitted remembrance event, Norwich police were dealing with fights that broke out in a crowd of hundreds of people.
“It was preventable on a multitude of levels. And had we just known, we could have had the proper staffing at this event and perhaps I could have prevented this from even happening,” said Norwich Police Chief Patrick Daley.
Daley said the event was a basketball tournament in honor of a homicide victim who was killed last year. He noted that 200-300 people were there, and police were initially called to the park for a fight that broke out allegedly involving an ex-girlfriend.
As officers were responding to the initial fight, Daley said another broke out, and it ended in the arrest of 23-year-old Jaylen Jarmon.
“The accused strikes one of the victims from the earlier altercation with a water bottle. They engage in a physical altercation. Officer Gross goes to arrest the accused, Officer Goddu tries to treat, tend to the victim, and then sees that Officer Gross is in a neck restraint and then comes over to help him. And the victim actually ends up fleeing the scene,” Daley said.
As officers approached Jarmon, they said he was sprayed with pepper spray, before putting one of the officers in a headlock.
“It’s a challenging situation. It’s a lot of unknown, you can see the size of the crowd there. People running in, people wanting to interject themselves. You have an officer in a potentially life-threatening neck restraint. Something that as a police department, we can’t even use for state law, so obviously seconds matter in that,” Daley said.
Daley said officers used their hands, more pepper spray, and a taser to get Jarmon to release the chokehold.
Eventually, Jarmon was arrested and charged with Breach of Peace, Assault on a Police Officer, Assault 2nd Degree, and Interfering with an Officer.
“Police use of force is always controversial, and it always looks bad. But sometimes, it’s necessary,” Daley said.
Daley and others with the Norwich Police Department went through a total of nine videos pulled from the body cameras and dash cameras of the officers from that night. Daley said the department is releasing what they can in an attempt to maintain transparency and accountability.
However, Jarmon’s mother, who was in the room as police went through the video, doesn’t like what she saw.
“I’m just not happy. I don’t believe that they de-escalated it the way that they should have. I think they could have done better. Looks like they filled out the application and showed up the next day,” said Tanikka Davis, Jarmon’s mother.
Davis claims her son was involved in an altercation prior to the officer’s getting involved, got pepper-sprayed, and then wasn’t sure who he was fighting.
“He was maced, he was running, he was in the blind. And they never identified themselves,” Davis said.
David pointed specifically to the moment her son drops to the ground after a taser was deployed, which she said was her son’s only indication that he was brawling with police.
“You can see that my son is in the fetal position up against the car and he is still being beat after the fact,” Davis said.
Though Daley seems to be standing by his officer’s actions, he said he directed the state’s attorneys office to take a look at all the videos, and make its own determination about the use of force used in the incident.
“The officers did a really good job of holding things at bay with a very, very tense, tense crowd. But obviously, we’ll look at everything because obviously, we could always do something better, or something different. But, we’re going to look at this completely,” Daley said.
Daley said after the incident, Officers Gary Gross and Victoria Clarke were transported to Backus Hospital to be treated and released. Daley said Gross is still out of work as a result of injuries sustained in the assault.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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