Videos reportedly capture cop hitting suspect
NEW BRITAIN – A New Britain police officer cleared earlier this year for his role in a fatal 2017 shooting was captured on video repeatedly hitting a suspect who was on the ground during an arrest Friday evening.
Two videos show a portion of an arrest in which Officer Michael Slavin can be seen striking 36-year-old Dennis Ramos several times while Ramos is face down in North Street underneath Slavin next to a bicycle at about 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Neighborhood leaders are questioning whether the incident is an example of police brutality by an officer who already was involved in the 2017 incident that some furious residents condemned as racist and sparked protests last year.
“We were questioning excessive force used as well and then after that we discovered the same officer was involved in a 2017 shooting of teens in New Britain,” said Pablo Rodriguez, the leader of an embattled New Britain community group who distributed the videos. “We questioned why they would put this officer in a situation where it’s high stress and higher incident rate.”
Police Chief Chris Chute stood by Slavin’s actions with a resisting suspect in a written statement, noting the videos show only a small segment of the entire confrontation and that all incidents involving physical force are reviewed.
“This video captures seconds of an encounter one of our officers had with a suspect who was resisting arrest and refusing to show his hands,” Chute said. “As with all incidents where officers use physical force, there is a review process conducted by supervisors. What is alarming in this video is there are no bystanders coming to the aid of the officer or calling 911 to report the incident.”
Mayor Erin Stewart pledged an internal investigation will take place in a statement sent to news organizations regarding the incident.
The incident began when Slavin approached several people milling around on North Street and Ramos fled on his bike into nearby traffic, Chute said. Ramos might have tried to destroy a suspected crack pipe in his pocket and that’s when he was tackled by Slavin and the encounter on the ground, captured on video, began.
Ramos has been charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer and has been released on $500 bond, according to court records. He could face additional drug charges, Chute said.
Slavin was among five New Britain officers who fired their weapons during a December 2017 shooting that killed 20year-old rapper Zoe “Gangstalicious” Dowdell and wounded two other teens. Community activists and relatives charged the shooting was racist and led protests in the city with members of Black Lives Matter.
Fairfield State’s Attorney John Smriga concluded all five officers who fired, including Slavin, were justified in using deadly force during the incident.
Chute said it is inappropriate to judge Slavin’s actions during Friday’s incident based on any previous actions, just as it would be inappropriate to judge a suspect based on that person’s criminal history.
But Rodriguez argued members of the North Oak Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, a community group organized to help improve one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, felt Slavin’s past makes it harder for the community to work with police.
The group, and Rodriguez in particular, have been increasingly at odds with city officials in an ongoing fight that led Stewart to cut the city’s contract with the group last month.
Rodriguez sent videos the NRZ received of the incident to police over the weekend but was unsatisfied with their response, he said Wednesday. He decided to distribute them to news organizations to ensure the incident got more attention, he added.
“I had an obligation at that point to make sure residents were aware of what had occurred … because we deemed it a public safety issue,” he said.