Mom of teen charged in stabbing calls for police training

As a Guilford teen was ruled competent Thursday to face trial on accusations he stabbed a woman in a random attack, his mother appealed to the legislature’s public safety and security committee in support of crisis intervention training for police officers who she believes may have saved her son.

Ellis Tibere’s mother, Denise Paley, told the committee this type of training was crucial as her family struggled to address her son’s mental health crisis ahead of the Westport stabbing on Jan. 6, 2020.

“Crisis intervention training is more than quelling a volatile situation. It’s also about preventing one. I’m grateful that the police Ellis encountered in Westport do have this training. It may have saved his life,” Paley said in the testimony. “I can’t help but wonder if our town had the training, could the whole story have ended differently.”

Tibere, 19, was found by a panel of experts not to “exhibit signs of psychiatric illness or any cognitive deficits,” and can stand trial for attempted murder, firstdegree assault and carrying a dangerous weapon. He has not entered a plea to the charges.

Superior Court Judge Gary White ordered Tibere to undergo a mental health competency evaluation — his second since the Westport arrest — after an incident in which he was found curled up on a snowbank, muttering to himself, inside a cemetery near his Guilford home, according an arrest warrant affidavit.

The incident happened while Tibere was free on $1 million bond following a May discharge from the state’s Whiting Forensic Hospital.

In the arraignment following his December episode, Tibere’s defense attorney John Gulash asked Judge Patrick Clifford for a mental health evaluation for his client to address “current significant psychiatric needs.”

Tibere objected to the evaluation before also trying unsuccessfully to waive his right to an attorney.

Paley testified Thursday in support of a bill that would study crisis intervention training provided to officers with the goal of better equipping them to address a rise in mental health-related incidents.

According to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, 116 Connecticut police departments have officers trained in crisis intervention and 43 have formal policies.

In her testimony, Paley detailed calls and conversations with her local police department after Tibere, then a high school senior, did not show up at the library to work on a project with classmates. Family and friends could not find him.

“As developments unfolded throughout the evening, we became certain he was experiencing a mental health crisis,” Paley said of her son’s disappearance on Jan. 5, 2020. “We were terrified he was going to harm himself.”

Paley relayed the family’s concern to Guilford police, but she claimed the officer did not have the proper training to address her son’s situation.

Guilford Police Chief Warren “Butch” Hyatt did not immediately respond Thursday for comment regarding Paley’s statements about his department.

Paley said she continued to call the department the night her son disappeared, but officers only assured her that Tibere would return home. Her husband, she said, later went to the department for help, but Paley said there was no action.

When Paley called the police department the final time, shortly before 2 p.m. the next day, the family learned Tibere was in custody in Westport. She later learned he was accused of stabbing a woman in broad daylight.

According to an arrest warrant, Tibere walked up the woman’s car, opened the door and started stabbing her, only stopping because a man exited the nearby New Beauty Wellness salon. Authorities said the woman had been waiting for an appointment.

Tibere told investigators that he had broken into two Westport homes to “lie in wait for victims to kill,” according to court records. However, police said there was no evidence he broke into any homes.

Tibere is now being held in lieu of $2 million bond. His next court date is scheduled for March 25.