A Yale University police officer fired two rounds into a locked car on Whitney Avenue on Wednesday morning, Oct. 14, while officers were trying to reach a man inside who was stabbing himself, according to preliminary findings released Friday, Oct. 16, by Connecticut’s Office of Inspector General.
The man does not appear to have been struck by gunfire, the inspector general’s office said. No officers were physically injured. The office, led by Inspector General Eliot D. Prescott, is investigating the shooting together with the Connecticut State Police Central District Major Crime Squad.
What the state says happened
According to the inspector general’s release, Yale police were called at about 8:50 a.m. to 220 Whitney Ave. for an emotionally disturbed person. They were told that a man, later identified as Jose Cubiz, 48, was suicidal and inside a vehicle.
The car was in a parking lot directly behind 205 Whitney Ave. that is owned and operated by the New Haven Lawn Club. Several Yale officers responded, and a family member told them the man had a kitchen knife.
Officer Ancil Farrier went up to the car, which was locked and had heavily tinted windows, and tried to talk to Cubiz, who was seated inside, the release says. Cubiz could be heard yelling that he was going to kill himself, and almost immediately began screaming as if he were hurting himself.
Farrier told the other officers he believed Cubiz was stabbing himself and that they needed to break the car’s windows, according to the release. He asked another officer to break a window. When the other officers did not do so right away, Farrier yelled that he was going to shoot out a window.
He then fired one round from his duty weapon through the rear passenger window on the driver’s side, the release says. Farrier then walked around the front of the car and fired a second round through the front passenger window as other officers were already getting into the car from the driver’s side and pulling Cubiz out. Officers began giving him medical aid as soon as he was out of the car.
The inspector general’s office puts the shooting at about 9:08 a.m. and lists its location as 193 Whitney Ave.
Hospital and custody
Cubiz was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital and treated for self-inflicted stab wounds to his neck, according to the release, and he continues to receive treatment there. Because he was on special parole at the time, he has been remanded to the custody of the state Commissioner of Correction, the office said.
The inspector general’s office has posted portions of Farrier’s body-worn camera video, video from a Yale police cruiser camera and a bystander’s video with its release. The office warns that all three contain graphic images. The Courier is not publishing images from the videos.
“Our investigation is ongoing,” the release says. It does not give a timeline for a final report.
What Yale said the day of the shooting
On the day of the shooting, Yale described the incident differently. In a written statement to the Yale Daily News, Yale Head of Public Safety Duane Lovello said a responding officer found a person locked inside a vehicle who was trying to harm themselves. “In an effort to intercede, the officer broke the vehicle’s window using a firearm that discharged,” Lovello wrote, according to the student newspaper.
Lovello wrote that the person was not struck and that the officer “immediately rendered medical aid” once the person was out of the car, the Daily News reported. The inspector general’s preliminary findings describe two rounds fired through two different windows.
Mayor Justin Elicker told the Daily News that day that state law requires the inspector general to take over an investigation when an officer uses deadly force, and that New Haven and Yale police were supporting the inspector general’s office. A Yale alert that morning said Whitney Avenue between Sachem and Humphrey streets was closed to traffic, the Daily News reported.
The full release, with links to the videos, is on the Office of Inspector General’s website.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, any time, day or night.
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