A routine well-being check on Chippens Hill turned fatal Friday night when a Bristol police officer opened fire and killed the person officers had been sent to check on. The shooting happened at approximately 8:30 p.m. at a residence in the Chippens Hill section of the city, and it has triggered a state-level investigation that remains active as of Saturday.
According to bristoledition.org, Bristol police officers responded to the residence for a well-being check around 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 16, and during the course of the investigation, an officer discharged his firearm, fatally striking the subject. Police have not released the identity of the person who was killed, and as dailyvoice.com reports, authorities also have not provided details about what led to the shooting.
Accounts of the incident vary slightly on how much is still unknown. The station's report from WFSB notes that specific details are still being confirmed, including what led to the wellness check in the first place and why the officer ultimately fired his weapon. NBC Connecticut similarly reported that police shot and killed the person while investigating the well-being check, without elaborating further on what preceded the gunfire.
Scene Contained, Residents Told to Steer Clear
Investigators said the scene was contained and that there was no ongoing threat to the public, though residents were asked to avoid the area while officers worked, per the same dailyvoice.com account. No further details have emerged about how long the scene remained active or when the area reopened to the public.
The Connecticut Office of the Inspector General has since opened its own inquiry into the shooting. Per WTNH, that investigation is currently active. Under Connecticut law, the Division of Criminal Justice is required to investigate any case in which a person dies following a peace officer's use of physical force and to determine whether that use of force was lawful, according to the Connecticut General Assembly.
How Past Connecticut Cases Were Resolved
The inspector general's office has closed out other Connecticut police shootings this year with findings of justified force, though those cases involved very different circumstances. In a 2009 East Hartford shooting, officers responded to a reported suicide attempt and found 52-year-old Robert J. Gilbert in a wooded area about 50 yards behind a residence, according to the Courant's account of the case. Investigators determined that none of the three officers fired until Gilbert, within 50 feet of the closest officer, leveled his firearm at them and advanced — and the inspector general ultimately ruled that all three officers were legally justified in using deadly force, even though Gilbert's gun turned out to be unloaded.
Bristol has its own recent example of a reviewed police shooting. On Oct. 5, 2023, 51-year-old Suzanne Laprise walked into the lobby of the Bristol Police Department and fired multiple rounds at the front desk office window, the Courant's coverage of the inspector general's work shows. Officer Spencer Boisvert returned fire 12 seconds after Laprise opened fire, and no one was injured; the inspector general later found that Boisvert's use of force was reasonable to defend a third person.
No such determination has been made in Friday night's shooting, and the current investigation remains in its early stages. The identity of the person killed, the officer involved, and the specific circumstances that led to the gunfire have not been disclosed, and it is unclear when the Office of the Inspector General will complete its review.
