Second police shooting by same officer in 6 months
DANBURY — If it sounds familiar that police officer Alex Relyea is in the spotlight for shooting and wounding a man with a knife, it’s because it is.
The same officer shot and killed a man with a knife only six months ago under similar circumstances — a shooting so recent that the lead investigator has not yet said whether the lethal force was justified.
Now there is a second shooting — and a second state police investigation — in a city that hadn’t seen an officer shoot a suspect in 20 years.
What to make of the second shooting by the same officer in such a short span depends on who is asked.
The city’s mayor and police chief say they are confident that Relyea’s use of force was an appropriate last resort — the same response they had on Dec. 29, when Relyea shot and killed 45yearold Paul Arbitelle, who came at police with a knife. Relyea also shot and injured the victim’s 74yearold mother.
In both cases, the men Relyea shot had arrest records. In both cases, there was no time for Relyea to deescalate the confrontation, according to city officials.
After a week of silence about the most recent shooting, state police said on Tuesday that 31yearold Bristol resident Aaron Bouffard was shot in the pelvis, the thigh and the finger.
“Hopefully people by this point know that our intention is never to shoot to kill, but to shoot to stop,” Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said. “It appears that is what (Relyea) did.”
Of course, lawyers for the shooting victims’ families question that.
“It’s unusual for an officer to use that type of lethal force in such a short period of time,” said Arbitelle family attorney Robert Berke, who filed papers to sue Danbury over injuries suffered by the mother. “There is a question as to whether there’s a propensity for this officer to use excessive force, and the facts would suggest that.”
Remaining neutral about the similar circumstances of the shooting is Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky, the prosecutor investigating Relyea’s latest use of force. Sedensky said there is no fair way to infer anything about the officer’s two shootings without an investigation.
Then there is the professional performance of Relyea, 32, who has a mixed record of decorations and complaints in his four years as a Danbury cop — and apparently a clean record during his two years as a police officer in New Milford.
Relyea took three months off active duty after the December fatal shooting and was only back on the job for three months before he was in the spotlight again for firing his weapon.
As a result, Relyea is back on paid leave.
“It’s unfortunate for him because he’s really someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time twice,” said Mayor Mark Boughton. “He did act appropriately based on the facts we have now.”
While it could be months before state police wrap up their investigation into Relyea’s latest shooting and turn their finding’s into Sedensky, who will issue his determination, the court case for the man shot by Relyea will begin immediately on Wednesday.
Bouffard is due in state Superior Court in Danbury on charges of firstdegree breach of peace, seconddegree threatening, thirddegree assault, and probation violation charges.
His father has challenged police accounts that Bouffard refused to drop his knives after a twohour manhunt ended in him being cornered on a soccer field.
“There were no shots from the front,” said Dwayne Gilliam. “If he was approaching, wouldn’t he have been shot from the front?”
The father acknowledged that his son has struggled with substance abuse, and claimed his son was on medication Wednesday, when a fight he had with staff at a Midwestern Connecticut Council of Alcoholism detox unit escalated.
“We have a person who just left the facility, and he has returned with a knife,” says an MCCA employee to a 911 operator on a transcript released by police.
Later, another MCCA employee called 911.
“Is this about the man with the knife?” Asked the 911 operator.
“Yes — he’s got two knives, and was last seen behind our facility,” the caller said.
When officers finally confronted Bouffard in a soccer field at Old Ridgebury and Reserve roads, he wasn’t ready to quit, police said.
The father, who has hired an attorney, said his son was 20 feet from the nearest officer.
“How are you going to impose danger if you are holding knives that far away?” Asked the father.
Boughton disputed the father’s characterization.
“This is a lifeordeath, splitsecond decision,” Boughton said. “There was no time for officers to try to deescalate the situation.”
State police said Relyea “fired several rounds at Bouffard,” who was rushed to Danbury Hospital and later moved to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was released and charged Tuesday.
It is not the first time Bouffard has faced charges. He was found guilty of robbery, assault and two other charges between 2012 and 2018, according to court records.
Relyea, meanwhile, is also under scrutiny.
Ridenhour said there was no special training that Relyea needed to undergo, based on what police know from witnesses and other details about the initial investigation. He said there was no police video footage of the shooting.
“If he is following department policy and following the law, there is nothing we need to do except be concerned for his overall health and wellbeing,” Ridenhour said.
State police confirmed on Tuesday that they have completed their investigation into Relyea’s fatal shooting of Arbitelle in December.
The shooting made headlines in part because Arbitelle was prone to alcohol abuse, street belligerence and fights with the law, and because Arbitelle had swastikas and “white power” tattooed on his body.
The neighboring Stamford State’s Attorney, Richard Colangelo, is overseeing the investigation because the shooting was fatal.
On Tuesday Colangelo would only say that he had the state police findings, and would make a determination.