A white police officer in Connecticut who suffering a mental health crisis has been charged with manslaughter after a state investigation found he failed to de-escalate the confrontation.
The officer, Joseph Magnano, was following the Feb. 27 shooting of Steven Jones, a 55-year-old man with a history of mental illness who had been walking through the street holding a large knife.
Magnano was charged Monday by the Connecticut Inspector General after he turned himself into law enforcement, according to Hartford Police Union President James Rutkauski.
Information about his attorney was not immediately available.
The shooting drew widespread public outcry and questions over Hartford鈥檚 policies around responding to people in mental distress.
Body camera footage showed Magnano arriving at the scene as three other officers were in the process of trying to calm Jones, who had used the knife to cut himself and was suicidal, according to a 911 call made by his sister.
While the officers kept their distance from Jones and spoke to him softly, Magnano immediately began shouting at him to drop the knife. He then fired nine shots at Jones, less than a minute after leaving his vehicle.
In an arrest warrant issued Monday, the Connecticut Inspector General said their investigation found Magnano 鈥渄id not engage in de-escalation measures (and) he failed to make reasonable attempts to use non-lethal force.鈥�
The report also concluded that Jones 鈥渄id not pose an imminent threat to bystanders,鈥� and that Magnano had 鈥渁mple space鈥� to back away from him.
鈥淭o the extent Magnano subjectively believed that Jones posed a risk of serious physical injuries to bystanders in the area, Magnano made no effort to move bystanders out of any perceived harm鈥檚 way,鈥� the warrant noted.
In his own sworn incident report, Magnano wrote that he was 鈥渇earful of Jones making a sudden lunge towards either an officer or citizen.鈥�
At a news conference Monday, Rutkauski, the police union head, accused the inspector general’s office of rushing its findings, adding that Magnano was 鈥渄efending his fellow officers, the community, himself.鈥�
The civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Jones鈥� family, called the charges a 鈥渘ecessary and meaningful step toward accountability.鈥�
鈥淪tevie was in the middle of a mental health crisis, and instead of receiving the care he needed, he was shot nine times,鈥� Crump said in a statement. 鈥淭his charge reflects what the family has known all along, that what happened to Stevie was not justified.鈥�
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