Connecticut police killed a man and two officers were wounded in a shootout Wednesday morning as authorities tried to execute a search warrant for drugs at an apartment building in New Haven, police said.
The two West Haven officers suffered leg injuries and were later discharged from a hospital, authorities said. Three other people in the apartment, including an 8-year-old girl, were not injured.
TV news video showed a section of an apartment building with broken windows and the scene cordoned off with yellow police tape.
New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said local and federal officers with a Drug Enforcement Administration task force were trying to serve a state search warrant for narcotics about 5:30 a.m. when a man in the apartment opened fire. The 35-year-old man had a criminal record and was known to police, he said.
“This was a long scene,” Jacobson said at an afternoon news conference. “It wasn’t just a shots fired and it was over. There was shots fired and officers struck. Then there was time in between. He was barricaded in a room. I’m not going to get into the specifics. But then there was more shots fired, so it was clear that this suspect was not going to retreat peacefully. There was attempts to speak with him.”
Also in the apartment were the girl and a 32-year-old woman, who both lived there, as well as the girl's 52-year-old grandfather, Jacobson said. The woman and the man who died apparently had some kind of relationship, he said.
“The story that is coming from that scenario is the officers did heroic things to get that grandfather and that 8-year-old safely out of that building,” the police chief said. “It’s unfortunately that the suspect succumbed to his injuries, but it’s clear from the initial investigation that he was firing at officers and even was given an attempt to talk to him and that failed.”
Police did not release the names of the officers or the man, and they did not disclose details of the search warrant. The state inspector general's office is investigating the shooting and is expected to release those details in the coming days, Jacobson said.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said he and Jacobson spoke with the girl and her grandfather and offered them services, including mental health counseling.
“You can just imagine how terrified they were inside that building, and I’m grateful that they’re OK,” Elicker said.
The mayor added that the shootout showed the dangers faced by law enforcement officers in efforts to protect the community and “hold people that are very, very dangerous accountable.”
This story has been updated.
