Federal jury awards $350,000 to mother of young man shot by police officer in Bridgeport
A federal jury returned a rare verdict against a police officer Friday, awarding $350,000 to the mother of a 21-year old Bridgeport man who was shot in the back as he ran from a city detective eight years ago.
The jury in New Haven concluded that the qualified immunity that regularly shields officers from liability in use of force cases did not apply to Detective Christopher Barona in the fatal, April 1, 2013 shooting of Bryan Stukes. To withhold immunity, jurors had to find that Barona knew he was acting outside the bounds of accepted police behavior.
“The jury saw it for what it was,” Stokes mother, Melissa Gibbs, said after learning of the verdict. “He murdered my son. I’m happy for the verdict. But I will never have my son back.”
The legal concept of qualified immunity that protects police officers carrying out their duties in good faith has been under attack in Connecticut and elsewhere by groups who want to exert greater control over police and who argue the broad application of immunity unfairly prevents victims of police violence from collecting damages. The state legislature, prodded by police reform groups, created a new law a year ago that establishes a means of suing police in state court under a presumably weaker immunity standard.
“Justice is served,” said attorney Antonio Ponvert III, who tried the case for Melissa Gibbs. “Police officers are not above the law. Police officers must tell the truth when they violate a citizen’s rights. Police officers will be held accountable when they commit unlawful acts and then try to escape responsibility. The jury heard us, they passed judgment on a corrupt and broken system.”
While the Stukes jurors returned a verdict against Barona, the relatively small judgment in a fatal shooting case suggests the jury may have been divided by the circumstances in which the shooting occurred. The entire incident, which played out over seconds, was recorded by cameras on at least three nearby businesses and jurors were presented with the video.
Barona was in the back of a small Bridgeport store buying a cup of coffee when he heard someone scream that there was a man outside with a gun. He went to the front of the store, saw Stukes outside holding a rifle in what he believed was a threatening manner, drew his handgun and went outside to confront Stukes.
Stukes appears to have been threatening shoot another man with the rifle. While Barona was buying coffee, the man threatened by Stukes was on the phone calling 911 and reporting that someone was trying to shoot him with a rifle.
According to a pretrial decision by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, Stukes fled on foot when he saw Barona emerge from the store with his handgun drawn. Barona shouted “police” and “drop the gun.” He fired once at Stukes, hitting him in the legs as he rounded a corner. Just around the corner, out of Barona’s vision, Stukes fell, dropping the rifle in the process. The rifle spun away and hit a signpost
It is not entirely clear from the video evidence whether Barona, as he rounded the corner in pursuit, could see that Stukes had lose possession of the rifle. Barona argued he did not know Stukes was unarmed. Stukes’ mother argued that the video evidence showed that Barona did know.
Meyer, in his decision, said Stukes’ mother had a strong argument based on the video recordings.
“At one particular framepoint in the video,” Meyer wrote, “Stukes is still on the ground, while the rifle is still moving and in contact with the signpost, and Detective Borona’s shoulders are already turned as if he has rounded the corner, such that plaintiff has a strong argument that Detective Borona was in a position to see Stukes’ loss of the rifle.”
The entire encounter, from the time Barona emerged from the store until Stukes’ death, lasted eight seconds.
“The video shows Detective Borona coming into view one second later on Benham Avenue about a half a car’s length behind Stukes who was immediately back on his feet and who resumed running away.” Meyer wrote. “ Detective Borona continued about a car’s length down the sidewalk next to the signpost where the rifle lay on the ground. At that point, Detective Borona shot again at Stukes, causing Stukes’ left arm to fly up. Although Stukes continued to run away down the street and out of camera view, this second shot by Detective Borona hit Stukes in the back and soon proved fatal after Stukes collapsed some distance away.”
Barona, who is indemnified by Bridgeport, was cleared of wrongdoing and the shooting was found to be justifiable after an investigation by a state prosecutor from a district outside of Bridgeport. In the future, all police-involved, fatal shootings will be investigated by a newly created state Inspector General. The state Criminal Justice Commission appointed retired state Superior and Appellate judge Robert Devlin the state’s first inspector general earlier this month.
Advocates of police reform have argued that state prosecutors cannot be impartial in investigations of potential police misconduct because of their close professional relationships with police departments and officers. The creation of the largely independent Inspector General is another of the police reform laws enacted in recently years by the state legislature.
