Dash and bodycam video released by Connecticut Inspector General Robert Devlin on Friday shows the exact moment three police officers fatally shot a man after a brief car chase through Bridgeport into Ansonia, which ended with the driver crashing his vehicle into a home.
The Bridgeport Police Department Tactical Narcotics Team was alerted to a person, identified as 41-year-old Jonathan Mark Lewis Bell, driving around the city with weapons and drugs on Sunday around 5:15 p.m., NBC Connecticut reported.
“While conducting surveillance in the area of Oak Street in Bridgeport, officers observed Bell operating a Mercedes-Benz SUV with a female party in the passenger seat,” according to the inspector general’s office.
The officers attempted to initiate a traffic stop, but Bell kept driving, through Bridgeport and onto Route 8 northbound.
“The pursuit ended when Bell drove off Route 8 into the town of Ansonia, crashing into a residence at 265 Division St., Ansonia,” the inspector general said. “Bridgeport Police Officer Mathew Hoffman, Officer Wilberto Rivera-Colon, and Sgt. Chris Robinson approached the Mercedes and directed Bell to show his hands.”
Video shows Bell smoking a cigarette after the crash while officers order him to keep his hands visible.
The female passenger was also pulled from the vehicle and told to stay on the ground.
According to the inspector general’s report, Bell appeared to reach for something inside the car, prompting the officers to shoot. He was raced to Griffin Hospital in Derby, where he died later that same night.
The medical examiner said he suffered a gunshot wound to the head and torso.
In a previous interview, Bell’s mother, Barbara Mankewich, blamed drugs, not police, for her son’s death.
“The drugs took him,” she told NBC Connecticut. “I mean, that’s what took him really, not the police. The police were doing their job.”
