A national database report shows that Connecticut had among the lowest number of police-involved fatal shootings in the country this year.
Mapping Police Violence Inc. has been publishing comprehensive and up-to-date data on police violence in the U.S. annually since 2013 in an effort to support transformative change.
According to the database, 1,098 people have been killed by police in the U.S. so far in 2022, with two of those being killed in Connecticut. This is a positive, decreasing trend as five people were killed in the state in 2020 and two were killed in 2021.
The two people killed by the police in the state this year were Nicholas Brutcher and Ryan Marzi. Brutcher was responsible for killing Sergeant Dustin DeMonte and Officer Alex Hamzy in Bristol in October and was shot by surviving Officer Alec Lurato. In a separate incident in September, Marzi was tased after state police troopers Jessie Rainville and Desmond Stimson responded to a report of a domestic assault in Hebron. Marzi later died from complications shortly after.
Over the past nine years, Connecticut has had 44 police-involved killings. Black residents were 3.5 times as likely to be killed by police as White people, with an average of 3.1 deaths annually. In total, 11 Black people have been killed since 2013. Latinx residents were almost twice as likely to be killed by police with an average of 1.6 deaths annually, a total of 10 deaths since 2013.
Connecticut passed a Police Accountability Bill in 2020 aimed in part at reducing police violence and fatalities. Connecticut law enforcement officers are no longer permitted to use chokeholds on suspects, must wear body cameras at all times, and can be held liable for their actions in civil suits, among other changes.
