State Inspector General Eliot Prescott says a Hartford police officer was justified in opening fire on a suspect in the city’s South End last year. Prescott also determines that it was likely by the officer’s “fortuitous presence” nearby—he was responding to an unrelated car crash—that a potential murder victim was saved.
Prescott’s report, issued Friday, says that shortly after midnight on Apr. 27, 2024, Officer Devanand Budhoo was standing on Wethersfield Ave., talking to the victim of a hit-and-run crash. During that interview, Budhoo and a colleague heard gunfire from inside 474-476 Wethersfield, a home across the street.
Police say the officers then saw an armed Luis Ortiz, 35, chase another man outside. As seen on bodycam video, the victim dives to the ground and Officer Budhoo is heard yelling at Ortiz, “Get down! Get down.”
About a second later, the officer fires two shots at Ortiz from across the street. Neither shot struck Ortiz, who was arrested after rushing back into the building.
Prescott writes, “Officer Budhoo used deadly physical force against Luis Ortiz because he subjectively and honestly believed that the victim, Officer Cameron and he were faced with the imminent use of deadly physical force against one or more of them..."
"This belief was objectively reasonable under the totality of the circumstances because a reasonably trained police officer would have believed that firing his weapon was necessary to stop Ortiz from continuing to fire on the victim and/or that Ortiz would direct fire at Officer Cameron or himself.”
Ortiz is held on $750,000 bond, with a court date set for Aug.
20. He faces charges including criminal gun possession, first degree attempted assault and criminal use of a weapon.