HARTFORD – A young man died last night after being chased and arrested by Stamford police. The following is a statement from the NAACP Stamford Branch, Connecticut NAACP State Conference, and ACLU of Connecticut:
“Another young Black man has died after being arrested by police in Connecticut, and once again, the public and his family members are struggling to receive information and answers from police. While the young man’s identity has not been released to the public, his mother stated to the NAACP and ACLU of Connecticut that she called police seeking mental health assistance for him, which begs the question of why police chose to chase, arrest, and detain rather than help him. Earlier today, his mother asked the Stamford Police Department to release the footage and information about her son’s death. We call upon the Stamford Police Department to immediately release the body camera, dashboard camera, and station camera footage to his family and to the public, as required by new Connecticut state law, within 96 hours from when police first chased him. We also demand the Stamford Police Department publicly release the police report, call and dispatch logs within 96 hours and provide his mother with autopsy results sooner than the four-to-six-week timeframe that police told her this morning.
No one should die at the hands of police, no one should die in police custody, and this young man’s family and the general public need and deserve complete transparency from the Stamford Police Department.”