Man killed by police at casino, years after son was shot by cops, wife says
The man who was shot and killed by officers in Massachusetts Saturday is a Connecticut resident who argued for more law enforcement transparency after his 15-year-old son was wounded by New Britain police more than five years ago, the wife and mother of the victims said Monday.
William Tisdol’s wife, Dondi Morrell, said Massachusetts police notified her that her husband was killed early Saturday in a shooting at Springfield MGM casino.
Morrell said the officials would not answer her questions about how Tisdol, the father of their eight children and her husband of 29 years, had been killed.
Massachusetts officials confirmed Monday afternoon that Tisdol, 48, was the person who was killed outside the casino.
The incident began around 2 a.m. Saturday when members of the Massachusetts State Police Gaming Unit and Springfield police received a report that a 48-year-old man was “acting aggressive” to others and was possibly armed inside the Springfield MGM casino, Jim Leydon, a spokesperson for the office of Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, said in a news release over the weekend.
The man was located as he was leaving the casino heading in the direction of Main and Union streets, Leydon said. A foot chase ensued with shots fired between the man and responding officers, Leydon said. The man was struck by gunfire and taken to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, where he died, officials said. Gulluni’s office, the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit and the Springfield Police Detective Bureau are investigating the deadly use of police force, Leydon said.
Leydon did not return requests for comment on Monday.
Morrell acknowledged that William Tisdol had his “run-ins with law enforcement.”
Morrell said she and Tisdol, a Hartford resident who had 11 grandchildren, lived together “off and on” and she last saw him on Thursday. Tisdol had been working in a warehouse in Connecticut, she said.
The couple’s son, Caleb, was shot and wounded by New Britain police in 2017 during an incident that killed 20-year-old Zoe Dowdell, an aspiring rapper. Morrell said her son’s flesh wounds are healing, “but his mental ones are not.”
“It’s law enforcement,” she said. “They’re doing it to me once again. I’ve been victimized by the system twice. We have no rights.”
After his son’s shooting, William Tisdol fought for more police transparency, arguing his family wanted to see the dash camera footage of the shooting as his son was sitting in prison. William Tisdol was among several people who marched on the New Britain Police Department in 2018 to demand answers.
The family wasn’t shown the videos until 13 months later. The officers who fired close to three dozen bullets were exonerated of any wrongdoing, but the incident prompted changes to New Britain police policies.
Caleb Tisdol was one of three men accused of several violent carjackings in New Britain in the days before the police shooting. He is now serving a 12-year prison sentence after four first-degree robbery convictions for crimes committed in the weeks before the shooting in New Britain,
Wethersfield, North Haven and Windsor, court records show.
“He was stoic, he was mad and I think he felt helpless not being able to do anything for his son,” Hartford activist Cornell Lewis, who worked with William Tisdol to protest the lack of information provided by prosecutors and the city on the shooting, said in an interview on Monday.
Morrell said police have asked her to describe her husband’s tattoos and scars, but she has not been allowed to see his body.
Massachusetts State Police confirmed that their officers were involved in the shooting, but declined to comment on whether anyone had died. Ryan Walsh, a spokesperson for Springfield police, said their officers responded to the scene, but were not involved in the shooting.
Gulluni is seeking to conduct a “thorough, fair and transparent process” throughout the investigation, Leydon said.
Body-worn camera footage, public and private recording systems, witness statements, 911 calls and dispatch logs will be examined as part of the investigation, Leydon said.