Family still waits for answers after fatal shooting

A Connecticut woman who waited more than a year for footage of New Britain police officers shooting her son in 2017 may not see how her husband was killed last weekend by Massachusetts authorities anytime soon.

While Connecticut’s 2019 police accountability laws now require video footage to be released within four days of a useof-force incident, Massachusetts does not have the same requirements.

The Hampden County District Attorney’s Office on Monday identified the man as William Tisdol, 48, who was killed early Saturday by police in a shooting outside the MGM Springfield casino.

A spokesperson for Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni referred questions about when the videos will be released to a statement that was issued Saturday about the shooting.

The statement issued by James Leydon, a spokesperson for Gulluni, said the DA will conduct a “thorough, fair and transparent” investigation that will conclude with the evidence and findings being presented to the public. But the statement gives no timeframe when the videos will be released.

According to Massachusetts Freedom of Information laws, the police can rely on an “ongoing investigation” exemption to withhold the videos from the public, said Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, which identifies and monitors First Amendment issues in six New England states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Silverman was not aware of any Massachusetts guidelines that require police to release the videos before the investigation is complete. In Connecticut, officials, including the state’s inspector general who independently investigates incidents of police use of force, must release body or dash camera footage within 96 hours of an incident.

“Generally speaking, the investigatory exemption is one of the more abused exemptions in Massachusetts,” Silverman 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.

“The investigation will rely on nationally recognized best practices for conducting an impartial and transparent investigation into what led to a police officer’s use of deadly force, resulting in a death,” Leydon said.

Tisdol’s wife, Dondi Morrell, said Massachusetts police notified her of his death, but said they would not answer her questions about what happened.

Leydon said 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 man was “acting aggressive” to others and was possibly armed inside the Springfield MGM casino.

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.

Morrell said Tisdol, the father of their eight children and her husband of 29 years, had been working in a warehouse in Connecticut.

Morrell said she and Tisdol, who had 11 grandchildren, lived together “off and on” and she last saw him two days before the shooting.

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.”

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 Caleb sat 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 when the investigation into the shooting concluded. 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 12year 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.