Officials: Body, dash cameras off during Hamden, Yale police shooting; camera recall function captures seconds of gunfire

Both Yale and Hamden police officers did not have their body cameras activated when they opened fire on unarmed occupants during an April 16 traffic stop, wounding a New Haven woman, officials said Tuesday.

A “recall” function on Hamden Officer Devin Eaton’s camera preserved images back to a point seconds before he fired his gun.

James Rovella, the former Hartford police chief who now commands the state police, said the lapses in camera use violated standards.

Rovella said 16 shots were fired, 13 by Hamden Officer Devin Eaton and three by Yale Officer Terrance Pollock. There has been no evidence that shots were fired by the occupants of the car. The video shows the window next to passenger Stephanie Washington being pulverized by police gunfire. The 22-year-old’s wounds turned out not to be life threatening. She was hospitalized for days.

Rovella released the short video in a press conference one week after the shooting. He said the swiftness of the public release of evidence state police detectives are using in a criminal investigation of the officers’ actions was unprecedented.

Eaton did not have his police-cruiser camera activated and only turned on his body camera after shots were fired. However, the cameras can recall images several seconds before the camera is engaged, Rovella said.

“In a perfect world, without all those stressors, yes, he should have turned it on much sooner,” Rovella said. “The video you saw was actually a recall portion. So when he turned it on, he was on the sidewalk someplace … that’s a tough situation to be in.”

The recall function does not have any audio. Rovella said they plan to have the video enhanced digitally.

Rovella said no video was available from the Yale officer. Pollock did not engage his body camera until deep into the incident — too late for the recall function to preserve anything significant. Pollock did not engage the camera in his cruiser.

The quick release of the footage breaks with a long-standing state police practice to withhold any video collected as evidence until the investigation is over.

“This is unheard of that we are putting it out so quickly,” said Rovella at the afternoon press conference. He noted that New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin is “very concerned with trust and integrity in the community.”

He added: “This is a difference in our operating procedures. Before, we did not show this until the investigation is over. “

Officials vowed last week that they would release footage that captures the shooting on Dixwell Avenue near Argyle Street in New Haven about 4 a.m. April 16 — a step that activists and community members have been demanding in a series of protests across New Haven and Hamden since the incident.

Rovella had pushed for transparency in officer-involved shootings when he was Hartford chief. He released recordings to the public shortly after incidents.

In contrast, other department chiefs have said their hands are tied from releasing video or audio recordings after state police and the state’s attorney take over the investigation.

On April 16, the officers had stopped a red Honda they believed was connected to what Hamden dispatchers definitively described as an armed robbery in which a gun was used. The crime reportedly occurred at a gas station and convenience store on Arch Street in Hamden.

But Rovella said at the news briefing there was no proof that the driver, Paul Witherspooon III, 21, had been involved in an armed robbery or had ever been in possession of a gun.

“We did not find a gun in any location — so there’s no gun,” Rovella said.

The two officers, after blocking in the car with their vehicles, commanded the driver to open the door. The driver, Witherspoon, did — but one or both of the officers opened fire at that moment.

Witherspoon’s lawyer, Michael Dolan, who attended the news conference, said Witherspoon was attempting to show officers that his hands were empty.

Witherspoon, who was not injured, was only briefly detained. His uncle told the Courant that Witherspoon had not attempted to rob a newspaper carrier at the gas station in Hamden, but rather had exchanged heated words with the man over a perceived slight.

The state police Tuesday also released the 911 call at 4:20 a.m. that initially alerted dispatchers to the reported robbery. The caller says Witherspoon pulled a gun on the newspaper carrier.

Rovella did emphasize that the caller provided a description of Witherspoon and his car, and that as far as the officers knew, the driver was reportedly seen with a gun.

Dispatchers relayed information to Hamden officers after the 911 call, and then to New Haven police over an inter-town hotline. The bulletin said the red car was heading toward, or into, New Haven. But the Hamden Police Department did not notify New Haven that a Hamden officer had crossed into the city on Dixwell Avenue.

“And there was the rub,” Rovella said.

At 4:26 a.m. and at 4:27 a.m., New Haven and Yale dispatchers alerted patrol officers to be on the look out for the car, whose driver was a suspect in an armed street robbery. But New Haven officers did not arrive until after the gunfire had subsided.

At 4:32 a.m., Hamden’s Eaton reports shots fired on Argyle Street. Yale’s Pollock reports shots fired at the same time.

Rovella said investigators still have to take comprehensive statements from the two officers.

“We don’t have any good reports from the officers yet,” Rovella said.

Pollock was injured during the shooting and Rovella said Tuesday that investigators believe “he was actually hit with a projectile from the Hamden officer.”

Rovella said it should take two to three months to complete the investigation.

“I have some concerns with this case not only from conception but also the completion of this incident,” Rovella said. Despite calls from activists to bring in the FBI, Rovella said it is not necessary to involve federal investigators.

Rodney Williams, Witherspoon’s uncle, said the family does not want the FBI to intervene. Williams, who was at the news conference, said the family trusts the state police to do a thorough investigation.

The incident, the first of two police shootings in five days in Connecticut, touched off a series of protests through Hamden and New Haven with hundreds calling for Yale and Hamden officials to fire the officers, release any and all video of the shooting, and conduct a transparent investigation that holds the officers criminally accountable.

No charges have been filed and the investigation remains on-going, officials said.

Hartford State’s Attorney Gail Hardy was assigned to investigate a police shooting Saturday of a Wethersfield teen. The teen was killed. Hardy said Tuesday she plans to release footage of the incident if it does not compromise the investigation.

Courant staff writer Dave Altimari contributed to this story.