‘I lose sleep over it’
State police trooper takes stand in manslaughter trial in Soulemane death
MILFORD — Connecticut State Police Trooper Brian North testified Friday that he thought two other officers could be in lethal danger when he shot and killed Mubarak Soulemane.
North, the first witness to take the stand Friday in his defense on a charge of first-degree manslaughter, said Soulemane initially appeared unresponsive after crashing into an SUV on Jan. 15, 2020 on a highway underpass following a chase, but “came to” and began reaching into his pants and took out a knife after West Haven police Officer Robert Rappa used a baton to break the passenger-side window.
North said he also saw Soulemane’s eyes moving toward that side of the vehicle, a Lyft he had stolen in Norwalk, in a behavior the trooper called “target-glancing.”
He said he looked over briefly and saw Trooper Joshua Jackson outside the vehicle, but Rappa’s head had ducked under the roofline, and North said he thought Rappa could be stabbed in the neck or face.
“I had tunnel vision at that point,” he said, describing his emotions as “almost like an, ‘Oh, my God,’ feeling.”
“I felt like I had to act in that moment or the West Haven officer or possibly Trooper Jackson could be killed,” he said.
He then shot Soulemane seven times.
“At that point, yes, I decided to use my weapon,” he said, adding later that he thinks every day about the incident, which causes him to lose sleep.
During cross-examination by Inspector General Robert Devlin, North affirmed that neither officer was inside the vehicle; that it would have been unreasonable to shoot
Soulemane if he had known that at the time; and that if Rappa had been going into the vehicle, North’s bullets could have ricocheted and hit the officer.
The prosecutor had a frame-by-frame montage of the video played in slow-motion, pausing it at the moment North first fired. He got the trooper to agree that at that moment, the knife in Soulemane’s hand appeared to be pointed at the driver’s side window, not toward the broken passenger-side window.
“So when you saw that knife you fired, correct?” he asked.
North paused. “They appeared to happen roughly at the same time,” he said.
Defense attorney Frank Riccio, noted police at the scene didn’t have the advantage of the slow-motion videos introduced by prosecutors during the trial, and asked North what his decisions were based on that evening.
“They were based upon a rapidly evolving event and what I was perceiving of it and all the information I was able to glean through my eyes and senses at the time,” he said.
North, 33, is the first Connecticut law enforcement officer charged in a fatal on-duty shooting in nearly two decades. He rejected a plea offer in the case calling for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, with a right to argue for less time behind bars. He has been placed on administrative leave and his police powers are suspended pending the outcome of the case.
About 50 people sat in the courtroom Friday as North took the stand. Soulemane’s family filled the front row behind the prosecution, with his brother in the second row sitting behind his mother. More than 20 people sat behind North, including his wife, who leaned forward with her chin resting in her hands at moments during her husband’s testimony.
Legally, North did not have to take the stand. He remained calm and composed throughout his testimony.
In his cross-examination, Devlin suggested officers weren’t in danger, and that video and testimony have supported that assertion.
“You’re on one side of the car, the car’s windows are up, doors locked, you’re on one side of the car, Trooper Jackson, Trooper Dalling, the West Haven officers are on the passenger side of the car,” Devlin said. “None of these people are in any danger whatsoever from that knife, isn’t that correct?”
“If you’re asking me to look at that on the information I know now, four years later...” North began to say.
“I’m asking you to look at it based on the facts that existed back then at that traffic stop,” Devlin said.
“Once again, what I’m perceiving through my own eyes on scene,” North began again.
“No, not what you’re perceiving, sir, what you know to be true,” Devlin said. “They’re outside the car. The car’s locked, the windows are up. Nobody’s in danger of anything, correct?”
“I don’t agree with that,” North replied.
Devlin said each time North pulled the trigger had to be justified, under the law, noting a policy calling for officers to assess the need to use force, then use force, then reassess.
“After you used deadly force at the center mass of Mubarak Soulemane, did you reassess?” Devlin asked.
“No, not at that point,” North replied.
Devlin asked also whether North reassessed after the second and third and fourth shots. North said he didn’t.
Devlin noted North provided a similar rationale after the shooting to superiors.
“I’d have to look at the exact quote, but something along those lines,” North said.
Riccio asked his client why he fired seven shots.
North said he fired his weapon “until I determined that the threat was stopped.”
“I didn’t know it was seven at the time,” North said. “It’s not something that’s intentionally done. It’s just falling back to my training.”
Under questioning from his own lawyer, North said it had been a “split-second decision.”
After the shooting, North said he was “definitely in shock.”
“I remember my hands were shaking and my heart was beating like crazy,” he testified.
“It was a very strange sensation I almost don’t know how to explain,” he said. “It’s almost like my body was buzzing or vibrating,” he said.
As time went on, North said he began to process the gravity of what had happened.
“I still think about this every day,” North said. “I lose sleep over it.”
North recalls chase, shooting
At the start of his testimony, Riccio asked his client about his career path and how he became a state trooper. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 2012, North said he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do, and worked in surveying and carpentry before loss prevention jobs at Sear’s and Lowe’s led him to apply to join the state police in 2014.
“I wanted to have a career path that I felt had some sort of meaning, where it’s more than just a job and it would give me the opportunity to help people, to make a difference in the world, to have a positive impact,” he said.
At the time of the shooting, North said he was a patrol trooper at the Troop G barracks in Bridgeport as well as a “new operator” with the agency’s Tactical Unit, though he did not have full capacity.
He was working the evening shift on Jan. 15, 2020, and before the chase, he said he was parked off Exit 40 in the state Department of Transportation parking lot. Riccio played a recording of what North heard from dispatchers while in his car. Dispatchers said a suspect in a stolen motor vehicle was armed with a knife, and later said it was a reported carjacking.
Riccio asked whether there was anything unusual about police pursuing a stolen motor vehicle in Norwalk. North said yes, because initially the broadcast had come through as Norwalk police pursuing a stolen vehicle.
“I thought that was strange because our pursuit policy had recently changed several months prior, prohibiting pursuits of stolen motor vehicles,” North said. But once the incident was reported as a carjacking with a knife, North said the violent crime warranted a pursuit.
North said he continued to listen for updates and looked on his laptop to see where his colleagues were located, then later started heading south on Interstate 95 in an effort to reverse direction somewhere to intercept Soulemane.
His efforts to stop the vehicle were unsuccessful, as were his and Jackson’s later attempt to “box in” Soulemane.
At the Exit 43 offramp, the stolen Hyundai could be seen getting off and taking a left turn onto Campbell Avenue at a red light in dash cam video played in court. The Hyundai then crashed into a black SUV, and North said he then positioned his vehicle to try to contain the Hyundai.
“Up until that point, the driver of the white Hyundai Sonata had made every attempt to escape, including ramming both of our cruisers while we attempted to box him in on the highway,” North said. “So, I wanted to cut off a potential avenue of escape at that location, as well.”
Once North parked his vehicle, he said he drew his pistol, which was procedure for a felony stop, he said. He saw Jackson yell at the driver to get out of the vehicle, and North went to driver’s-side door.
North said he used his flashlight to look inside the vehicle.
“I saw the operator of the vehicle, he had his eyes closed and he was leaning back in the chair with the seat slightly reclined and his head was the headrest and his hands were on his lap,” North said. He did not have on a seatbelt.
“He was completely unresponsive,” North said. “He appeared to be unconscious or passed out.”
North noted the crash was at a low speed – at around 15 mph – so the operator likely wouldn’t lose consciousness from that. North said at that point he thought Soulemane was having a medical or drug-related issue.
He then saw Rappa strike a window with a baton and told Jackson to go to his Taser. He explained since Soulemane didn’t have any weapons drawn, he wasn’t an active threat, but “that doesn’t mean he can’t rapidly escalate the situation.”
North described the scene as “very loud” as they were under the highway and multiple police sirens were going off. He couldn’t hear any conversations.
Once the window shattered, the operator “seemingly comes to,” North said.
“It seems like he wakes up, he comes to, his eyes shoot wide open and he then begins looking around,” North testified. “His hand then immediately shoots down to his right pants pocket and he began reaching rapidly as if to pull something out.”
North said Soulemane then brought out a silver-colored object, which appeared to be a knife, and held it in front of him. He then turned toward the right and looked at the right side of the vehicle where Jackson and Rappa were.
North called this “target-glancing,” and said that Soulemane was turning toward the passenger side of the vehicle where Rappa and Jackson were. He saw Jackson moving toward the open window with his Taser out, and could not see Rappa at all, which seemed to him that Rappa had started moving into the vehicle to remove Soulemane.
“I felt that I had to act in that moment or the West Haven officer, even potentially Trooper Jackson, could’ve been killed,” he said.
After North fired his gun, he said he broadcast that there were shots fired and looked inside the vehicle. He said he saw Soulemane was still moving with a knife in his hand, so North then yelled out something to the effect of, “He’s got a knife, drop the knife, drop the knife.”
North said at some point Soulemane dropped the knife, and North reached in and retrieved it.
One of the law enforcement officers reached into the vehicle to remove Soulemane and render first aid, according to North. As Soulemane was being taken out of the vehicle, the Hyundai began to roll forward and hit the black SUV for a second time.
North said he then helped provide first aid, including CPR, to Soulemane. A trooper pulled North off of CPR and a sergeant later asked for a brief synopsis of what occurred.
North testified that there had been no time to de-escalate the situation.
“As soon as the passenger-side window was shattered, the operator of the vehicle chose to rapidly escalate the situation and at that point there’s no time for de-escalation because he is aggressively and rapidly acting,” North said.
Riccio asked North whether he panicked during this incident. North said he didn’t.
“I was definitely highly stressed during the event, but I just fell back and relied on my training and past experiences to handle it,” North said.
“Were you angry at Mr. Soulemane?” Riccio asked.
“No, not at all,” North replied.
‘Dynamic, evolving event’
Devlin began his cross-examination by showing a slide from a PowerPoint that was used in a course North took as part of his training.
The slide stated that, for felony traffic stops, “communication is key” and officers should talk to their partner to form a plan of action.
“Do not approach the car!” the slide warned, as Devlin pointed out.
Devlin argued North did not follow that guidance, confirming there was no formulated plan, not much communication between officers and that North approached the car.
“All of which is wrong in felony stops,” Devlin said. “Correct?”
North said no, because it was a “dynamic, evolving event.”
Devlin then asked North how many words Soulemane spoke from the time of the stop until North fired his weapon.
“Zero,” North said, and later noted that Soulemane did not make any verbal threats.
Devlin noted the only communication between officers and Soulemane was Jackson telling him to get out of the car twice. Given the noisy conditions, Devlin posed whether it was possible Soulemane did not hear the commands.
“It’s possible,” said.
Devlin also asked North whether Soulemane’s initial “unresponsive” state could’ve been due to the collision he had with the black SUV. North said that was unlikely due to the low speed.
“Do you think that Mr. Soulemane might have been suffering some mental health issues, did that cross your mind?” Devlin asked.
“No,” North replied. Before the jury was brought in Friday, the state reopened its case briefly to enter two exhibits into evidence: medical records of North and Soulemane.
Riccio then made a motion for judgment of acquittal, saying that officers testified that they feared death or serious bodily injury from Souelmane and that they weren’t able to de-escalate the situation, and argued the state did not put on evidence showing North acted unreasonably or breached a police officer’s standard of care.
Judge H. Gordon Hall denied the motion.
North was the only witness called to the stand Friday. The case is expected to resume Monday morning.
With North’s testimony, every law enforcement officer at the scene of the shooting has testified in court this week.
Devlin, a former judge and the state’s first inspector general, appointed in 2021 to review all police uses of deadly force statewide, has repeatedly quizzed the officers about why they didn’t try to make a plan that wouldn’t have resulted in North’s fatal shooting of Soulemane. He noted that Soulemane’s vehicle was “boxed in” and heavily damaged after rear-ending an SUV.
The prosecution rested its case Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, jurors saw body-worn and dash camera footage of the shooting for the first time. They also saw portions of the chase on Interstate 95 after Soulemane stole the Lyft vehicle in Norwalk.
Prior to the pursuit, the 19-year-old Soulemane, whose family said he suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, acted erratically while armed with a knife at an AT&T store in Norwalk, then assaulted a Lyft driver before stealing his vehicle at a gas station, witnesses testified.
Devlin began the trial by calling family and friends of Soulemane to the stand who recalled the teen’s issues with mental illness.
On Tuesday, the Lyft driver testified that he was afraid for his life during the incident, and a Norwalk officer who responded to the scene also testified. Both of the men testified that they pulled guns during the incidents, but neither fired their weapon.
If found guilty, North would face up to 40 years in prison, five of which would be mandatory.
North