Deliberations begin in manslaughter case against Connecticut state trooper

A Connecticut state trooper’s fatal shooting of the 19-year-old man who had just crashed a stolen car following a high-speed chase was “overkill” and showed an “extreme indifference to human life,” a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday during closing arguments at the trooper’s manslaughter trial.

Officers had Mubarak Soulemane surrounded in the car following the Jan. 15, 2020, crash in West Haven and Trooper Brian North didn’t need to shoot into the vehicle, killing him, state Inspector General Robert Devlin told the Milford court.

North’s lead attorney, Frank Riccio II, asked the six jurors to acquit his client, arguing that North believed Soulemane was about to attack two other officers with a knife when he opened fire. Those other officers testified that they were worried Soulemane might harm them, he pointed out.

“If they felt as though they were in fear of death or serious physical injury, how is it not reasonable to think that Trooper North thought that way as well?” Riccio asked.

The jury began deliberations but did not reach a verdict by the end of Wednesday, the trial’s eighth day. If convicted of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm, North could get from five to 40 years in prison. Deliberations were to resume Thursday morning.

On the day of the killing, North, Trooper Joshua Jackson and a West Haven police officer surrounded the stolen car after it left Interstate 95 during a chase and crashed into another vehicle. The police officer broke the passenger side window, and Jackson fired his Taser at Soulemane, but it didn’t subdue him.

North, who pleaded not guilty, fired his handgun seven times through the driver’s window at close range when he said Soulemane pulled out a knife and made a motion toward the other officers. The shooting happened about 35 seconds after North got out of his cruiser following the crash.

Devlin, who investigates all deadly uses of force by Connecticut police officers and found that the shooting wasn’t justified, told the jury that officers had the car surrounded and Soulemane could not go anywhere. He said Soulemane was sitting in the driver’s seat with a knife, but was not an imminent threat to police.