Suit blames cops for mom’s death

Complaint alleges Fairfield police could have prevented killing

BRIDGEPORT — Fairfield police could have prevented the fatal shooting of a local woman by her exhusband, her son claims in a lawsuit filed against the town.

It was a crime that made headlines across the country.

On Feb. 3, 2019, James Taylor, the 75-year-old former owner of a garbage hauling company, crashed through the plate-glass window of his ex-wife’s home in Fairfield and shot her in the back of the head as she fled, according to police. He then attempted to shoot his stepson, Donald Garamella, but Garamella managed to get the gun away and held Taylor until police arrived, they said.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Superior Court,

Garamella claims that Fairfield police not only had prior warning that Taylor was about to become violent but had access to the gun Taylor used just days before the shooting.

Garamella seeks unspecified monetary damages against the town of

Fairfield not only for his mother’s death but for the psychological trauma he suffered when she was shot to death in front of him.

Town Attorney James Baldwin declined comment on the lawsuit. Garamella’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

On Aug. 6, 2019, James Taylor who was free on bond awaiting trial in his ex-wife’s death, was found hanging from the ceiling of a storage container behind his son’s Fairfield home. According to the medical examiner his death was self inflicted. He had previously told a judge he intended to use an insanity defense for his ex-wife’s murder.

According to the lawsuit, two days before the fatal

shooting, on Feb. 1, both Garamella and his mother notified Fairfield police that James Taylor was acting aggressively toward them and had threatened Catherine Taylor.

“When officers arrived at the Redding Road home, Catherine Ann Taylor told them about James Taylor’s dangerous and unhinged behavior toward her involving the verbal threats he had made,” the lawsuit states. “At the police officer’s direction Catherine Ann Taylor and Donald Garamella immediately began to remove her personal and business property in order to relocate them elsewhere.”

The suit states that Catherine Ann Taylor and Garamella also showed the two officers three long guns James Taylor had stored in the kitchen but police took no action to remove the guns despite being told about James Taylor’s “alarming and unhinged behavior.”

Later that evening Catherine

Ann Taylor again called the Fairfield Police Department to tell them she feared for her safety because of James Taylor’s behavior, according to the lawsuit.

“Despite this repeated plea for help to the Fairfield Police Department, no police officers came to the Redding Road property that evening or the following day,” the suit states.

The lawsuit states that at 9 p.m. on Feb. 3, James Taylor forcefully entered Garamella’s Catamount Road home armed with one of the guns previously shown to police. He fired at Garamella but missed. He then shot Catherine Ann Taylor in the back of the head as she attempted to escape, the suit states. When James Taylor attempted to reload the rifle Garamella pinned him to the floor and called 911.

“Defendant town of Fairfield’s negligence by and through the acts or omissions of its Police Department and its police officers caused Catherine Ann Taylor’s catastrophic injuries and death,” the suit states.