A Connecticut jury on Wednesday watched a replay of the final moments of Mubarak Soulemane’s life after the 19-year-old was shot and killed by a Connecticut state trooper under a highway overpass in West Haven in 2020.
The footage of Soulemane’s death, which was captured on police body cameras and dashboard video, was a stark reminder for the jurors of why they were gathered in a small courthouse in Milford this week: to decide whether State Trooper Brian North should be convicted for killing Soulemane.
The videos that were played and replayed in court on Wednesday are at the very heart of the case against North, who was officially charged with manslaughter in early 2022.
Prosecutors allege that the videos show North was not justified in shooting and killing Soulemane, something the Connecticut State Police Union and North’s defense attorneys dispute.
For the first two days of the high-profile criminal trial, both prosecutors and North’s defense team were largely focused on what happened in the leadup to Soulemane crashing a car under the overpass in West Haven.
They talked about Soulemane’s mental health and his diagnosis of schizophrenia. They showed video footage of him holding a knife in a store in Norwalk and later stealing a white Hyundai Sonata from a Lyft driver. They also discussed how he drove that vehicle in a high-speed pursuit along Interstate 95.
But the graphic video footage brought the jurors’ attention back to the police shooting and what took place immediately before North fired several bullets from his service weapon into Soulemane’s chest.
[Trial for CT trooper charged in Mubarak Soulemane’s death underway]
Connecticut’s Inspector General Robert Devlin, the special prosecutor who was appointed in 2021 to review cases in which police officers shoot someone, showed the jury every angle of Soulemane’s death.
And he questioned four other state and local police officers who were also at the scene when Soulemane died.
The videos show Soulemane’s car surrounded by police cruisers after he crashed into another vehicle under the overpass. They show the officers surrounding the car with their guns drawn. And they depict a West Haven police officer breaking the passenger-side window, another state trooper attempting to fire a taser at Soulemane and, then, North firing seven bullets through the driver-side window.
Only after North fired his handgun can he be heard declaring that Soulemane had a knife. “He’s got a knife. Drop the knife,” he said. “It’s in his hands. It’s on his lap.”
The courtroom that was crowded with family members and friends of both Soulemane and North grew quiet as the body camera footage was played. Some grew visibly emotional. Others placed their face into their hands.
North, who served for five years as a trooper prior to the shooting, sat motionless at the defense table.
Devlin attempted to use the video footage to make the case that there was no reasonable threat to any other officer’s life when North fired his handgun at Soulemane seven times.
He used testimony from Mark Sinise, a police inspector who works for the state Division of Criminal Justice, to highlight that the stolen vehicle Soulemane was in was blocked under the overpass. He noted that Soulemane was surrounded by police. And he pointed out that the car’s doors were locked and the windows were up, prior to the driver-side window being smashed out.
“He wasn’t a danger to anybody, right?” Devlin said, over the objections of North’s defense attorneys.
Devlin, who previously served as a judge in Connecticut, also questioned the other officers who surrounded Soulemane that day about why they didn’t seek to deescalate the situation.
Joshua Jackson, the other state trooper who attempted to tase Soulemane, and the three West Haven officers who also responded, told the jury that the scene under the overpass that day was fast-paced, stressful and loud, with sirens blaring and vehicles roaring overhead on Interstate 95.
“There was no time for a formal plan,” Jackson said.
“We’re never trained for every single specific scenario,” he added later.
Frank Riccio, North’s defense attorney, at another point effectively accused Devlin and his team of serving as a “Monday morning quarterback” by questioning the actions of police after the fact. And he repeatedly highlighted the portions of the body and dash cam videos that show Jackson and West Haven police officer Robert Rappa trying to open the passenger-side door of the car.
Riccio spotlighted that footage to bolster his argument that North fired his handgun to protect the lives of his fellow officers. North made that same point in a written statement that was provided to investigators, saying he believed the other officers were at “imminent risk” of being stabbed in the neck or face.
All of the officers who took the witness stand on Wednesday agreed that Soulemane sat motionless in the car when they first surrounded the vehicle, but Jackson, the other state trooper, told the jurors that changed once the officers smashed out the passenger-side window of the car.
“He made a rapid movement toward me,” Jackson said.
Devlin tried to counter that point by replaying Jackson’s body camera footage from that day and asking him to pinpoint exactly when Soulemane made the move toward him with the knife.
After playing the video twice, Jackson said the angle of the body camera footage made it difficult to see the moment when Soulemane turned toward him.
The prosecutor also asked Rappa, the West Haven officer, if it was his intention to crawl through the broken window to extract Soulemane from the car.
Rappa confirmed he did not plan to go through the window, but he said he attempted to open the door prior to North firing off seven rounds at Soulemane.
The jurors were also shown video footage of several statements that North made immediately after the shooting, which were captured on other state police troopers’ body cameras.
In the first video, North can be heard explaining that Soulemane was not moving when he first approached the vehicle. He then explains that Soulemane grabbed for the knife once the other officers broke through the driver-side window.
“The first thing he did is reach in his pocket and pulled out a knife,” North said.
In the second video, North begins explaining the situation again.
“The guy’s kind of out of it,” North said of Soulemane. “He almost looked like he was passed out.”
That video from State Police Sergeant Ryan Hennessey quickly shuts off after that moment, however.
Devlin made sure to emphasize that point for the jurors, and at another point in the trial, he openly alleged that North signaled for Hennessey to stop recording him.
“It didn’t go off on its own,” Devlin said, again to objections from North’s defense attorney. “It went off because he looked at him.”
Riccio, North’s defense attorney, sought to downplay the fact that the video footage was cut off by pointing out that state policy only requires officers to have their body cameras on when interacting with members of the public.