The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘AN ACHING VOID’
Brother of New Milford man killed by cop recounts suffering of police, victims’ families in book co-authored with former judge
Wayne Reid said sometimes it seems nothing has changed in Connecticut since his brother was fatally shot by a police officer in 1998.
Reid was 21 when his older brother Franklyn Reid was killed by New Milford Police Officer Scott Smith. The tragedy played out on an international stage after Smith became the first police officer in the state to be tried for murder in Franklyn Reid’s death.
Smith, a New Milford 27-year-old resident just like Franklyn Reid had been, was found guilty of firstdegree intentional manslaughter with a firearm and sentenced to 12 years in prison, suspended after six years. The conviction was overturned and Smith pleaded no contest to criminally negligent homicide in 2004, receiving a suspended sentence.
He agreed never to work as a police officer again. He died by suicide in 2013.
Reid has come to terms with his brother’s death and is not interested in revenge. What he is interested in, he said, is helping other people who face the same unspeakable events he and his family did and in trying to change what still remains a problem: police shootings.
He has an unusual partner in getting his message out — Charles Gill, the Superior Court judge who presided over Smith’s trial. The two recently published a book they say they hope will bring some context to Franklyn Reid’s death and the spate of recent fatal police encounters to the public.
“I feel for the families,” of the three recent fatal police shootings in Connecticut, Reid said. “I feel for the journey they’ll have to endure. There are at least two families affected” — the family of the victims and of the police officers.
Still happening
Reid said he’ll never forget learning the news of his brother’s death while he was at a college wrestling tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
A relative who lived in the area showed up at the hotel where he was staying with his team and asked if he had spoken with his parents. Then the relative blurted out the news. His brother had been shot to death while fleeing from police.
“My initial reaction was it’s not true,” Reid said.
Reid called his parents. He said his dad explained what happened, his native Jamaican accent thick: “They kill him today.”
“I remember I dropped the phone and I walked out of that hotel room,” Reid said. “I went to the beach and just sat there in the darkness.”
He said the pain of losing his brother lingers. Every time another police officer shoots and kills, he feels a new jolt.
In January, the jolts came hard and fast. Police officers in Connecticut fatally shot three people in unrelated incidents in the span of about two weeks.
“It’s still happening,” Reid said. “These three incidents, there is so much emotion.”
Michael Gregory, 30, was shot and killed by Ansonia police on Jan. 2. The officers involved were identified by the department as Sgt. Christopher Flynn, Officer Brendon Nelson and Officer Wojciech Podgorski.
Mubarak Soulemane, 18, was fatally shot by Connecticut State Police Trooper Brian North on Jan. 15 in West Haven.
Edward Gendron, 57, was shot and killed by Waterbury Police Officer Ronald W. Tompkins III on Jan. 20.
Then and now
The investigations into the deaths of Gregory and Soulemane are aided by body camera footage. In Soulemane’s case, dashboard camera footage supplements the evidence. Waterbury police do not have body cameras.
Reid said body cameras did not exist at the time of his brother’s death.
“We had independent eyewitnesses that didn’t have connections to anyone involved in the incident. I am so grateful to those witnesses,” he said. “But footage leads the charge now.”
Reid and Gill’s book, “Death by Cop, a Call for Unity” is almost deliberately clinical in its description of the events. Details are based on police evidence; conversations and witness statements are taken from transcripts of the investigation and the trial.
Franklyn Reid’s fatal shooting happened on a busy Route 202 in New Milford around 11:20 a.m. on Dec. 29, 1998. Warrants were out for Franklyn Reid’s arrest when he was killed by Smith after a brief foot pursuit.
Wayne Reid says he knew his brother had problems with police — “he had a criminal record.”
But painful details unfolded during Smith’s trial.
“(Smith) had his left foot on (Franklyn Reid’s) back, and the boy on the ground had his hands behind him secured by the officer’s left hand,” one eyewitness was quoted as saying during the trial.
Reid said he learned the
Former Judge Charles Gill, left, with Wayne Reid in Bridgeport last month. Reid and Gill have published a book recounting the events surrounding the death of Reid’s brother, Franklyn, who was fatally shot by a New Milford police officer in 1998.
Reid family wasn’t the only family affected by his brother’s death. Smith and his family also felt it.
“The emotional pain (the police) are going through is no different than what my family has been experiencing,” Reid wrote. “It feels like someone reached into your heart, ripped a piece out, leaving an aching void.”
But, Reid said, communities have to re-evaluate the way they look at police and citizen encounters, especially when other factors are involved — like race.
Smith maintained the shooting was justified. While some — including Reid’s father, according to the book — believed it might have been an “accidental discharge,” Reid said he doesn’t feel that way.
“If we can fundamentally view these incidents as what is right vs. what is wrong, rather than race, we’re one step closer to change,” Reid said. “Officers also need to have the courage to own up to it if they shouldn’t have fired their weapon.”
Moving forward
Reid and Gill connected in November 2013 through a mutual acquaintance, years after Gill was the judge presiding over Smith’s murder trial. Reid told Gill he wanted to write a book about his brother’s shooting.
“I can help you with that,” Gill recalled telling Reid at the time.
The book takes readers from the moments that led up to the fatal shooting through Smith’s sentencing to prison.
“There’s no hypothesis,” Gill said of the book’s topics. “We used transcripts, court filings. It includes everything the jury heard . ... It’s an emotional, balanced story. We’re not here to demonize law enforcement.”
The state Appellate Court overturned Smith’s conviction in October 2002 after it was found that testimony about Smith’s training was excluded and the jury was
not properly notified of the law on self-defense.
In March 2004, the night before a second trial was to begin, Smith pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of criminally negligent homicide. Smith, who agreed to never work as a police officer again, was sentenced to a one-year suspended prison term and two years probation.
Reid said he hopes the book can help support citizens and police officers.
He said sometimes all the officer can do is show a bit of compassion, something he claims his family never saw from Smith — who said during the trail that he felt justified in pulling the trigger, according to the book.
“I have no animosity toward Officer Smith,” Reid said. “Let’s try to learn from this. I want to empower others to tell their stories ... Life goes on. We have to find a way to stop repeating these patterns (of police shootings).”