MILFORD (WTIC News)-- A jury acquitted Connecticut state trooper Brian North of first-degree manslaughter in the 2020 shooting death of driver Mubarak Soulemane, who was carrying a knife and surrounded in a West Haven underpass after using a stolen car to lead police on a swerving, high-speed chase up I-95.
North was also found not guilty of the lesser courts of second degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Trooper North shot Soulemane, 19, of New Haven, on Jan. 15, 2020. North testified that he opened fire because he believed Soulemane was about to attack other officers with the knife. The jury of four men and two women watched video of that testimony on Friday before delivering the verdict.
"We are very happy with the verdict and the result," said defense attorney Frank Riccio, who declined to make further comment because of a pending lawsuit by the Soulemane family against his client.
North, now 33, acted with “an extreme indifference to human life,” according to state Inspector General Robert Devlin, who prosecuted the case, saying the shooting was not justified because Soulemane, seated and surrounded by police with their guns drawn, did not present an imminent danger.
Defense attorney Frank Riccio says North acted reasonably, reacting to a man who was holding a knife minutes after he threatened lives by driving up to 100 mph during a heavy afternoon commute, zooming between lanes and striking other vehicles. Riccio says by eliminating an active threat, North did as he was trained.
Soulemane’s family says he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in high school and was likely off his meds and having a “manic episode” during the series of conflicts that day.
Prosecutors say Soulemane had displayed a knife at the AT&T store in Norwalk before stealing a Lyft driver’s Hyundai and speeding away. Norwalk police broke off their pursuit before state police picked up their own, chasing Soulemane as he careened up the highway.
The chase ended thirty miles from Norwalk in a highway underpass in West Haven, where the Hyundai collided with an SUV and was quickly surrounded by police cruisers, including one driven by North.
The next, frenetic thirty-five seconds ended in the shooting. Surrounded and sitting in the driver’s seat of the Hyundai, police say Soulemane was initially unresponsive. Police video from the scene shows that with sirens blaring, Trooper Joshua Jackson twice instructed Soulemane to “get out of the car.” Soulemane did not move, and it’s unclear if he heard Jackson’s command. A West Haven police officer, who says he was trying to initiate an arrest, smashed the passenger side front window with a baton. From the same side of the car, Trooper Jackson deployed a taser, which didn’t work.
It was then that Trooper North, standing on driver’s side, says he saw Soulemane move—producing a knife from his waistband.
North says he thought Soulemane was about to attack the West Haven officer with the knife. North fired seven times in rapid succession at Soulemane’s chest, fatally wounding him. CPR attempts made at the scene failed. After an autopsy, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death was a homicide.
Devlin argued that, starting with the SUV collision, Soulemane was stunned and surrounded by police with guns drawn-- he was not an imminent threat to attack other officers. He added that firing seven shots was “complete overkill,” with North demonstrating a “reckless disregard” for life, a key component of the manslaughter charge.
“Why is (Soulemane) dead?” asked Devlin during closing arguments. “Because he stuck a stupid knife up in front of his face, and Brian North jumped the gun and shot him seven times. He’s a scared kid doing a stupid thing, and he should still be alive today.”
Riccio said North acted reasonably, and as he was trained, to eliminate a threat: “Why seven shots? And the answer is, as Trooper North testified, ‘seven shots because that’s how I was trained. Seven shots because it was one brief engagement… I shoot until the threat is over.’”
Devlin also argued that police missed chances to de-escalate the scene. He says when they first had Soulemane surrounded, police could have called a “timeout” to confer with supervisors. If they had managed to cool down the conflict, Devlin says, Soulemane’s life might have been saved.
Multiple police officers testified during the trial that it wasn’t feasible to de-escalate, and Riccio pointed out that by driving like a “bat out of hell” to evade police, Soulemane had offered no sign that he would comply: “Mr. Soulemane showed not one iota of compliance that entire afternoon, from Norwalk to West Haven. So, why do you think he would start then?”
North previously rejected a plea deal in the case. First degree manslaughter carries a sentence of between five and forty years in prison. The jury had the option to convict on second degree manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years.
The issue of race was not addressed at trial. Soulemane was Black, and North is white. Soulemane’s family has been represented by civil rights attorney Sanford Rubenstein, who said when charges were filed against North in 2022, “"Martin Luther King said the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. We have seen the arc bend toward justice with the arrest of Trooper North. Let this arrest send a message to law enforcement throughout our nation that if you shoot and kill without justification based on what a reasonable police officer would do under the circumstances you will be charged criminally.”
The six-person jury in Milford was comprised of four white men, one white woman and one Black woman.