A man died after East Hartford police shot him during an altercation that followed a “panicked 911 call” about a serious domestic violence incident Thursday evening, police said.
A woman suffered life-threatening injuries during the domestic incident and was being treated at a local hospital. Her condition appeared to be improving, a police spokesman said Friday morning.
“There’s good cause for hope and we’re optimistic,” Lt. Josh Litwin said.
Two officers who responded to the scene suffered minor injuries during the struggle with the man and also were treated at a nearby hospital. The officers are on administrative leave, Litwin said.
“They are resting and tending to the injuries they sustained from the incident,” said Officer Michael Weglarz. “They are lucky they are alive and saved the woman’s life. Terrible situation all around.”
Two elementary-aged children were in the house at the time of the incident, Litwin said. They were not injured.
Officials had not named either victim or the officers involved late Thursday. Litwin would not say if one or both officers fired their weapons.
There was no history of domestic violence at the house, which is in a quiet neighborhood where serious crimes are uncommon, Litwin said.
Neighbors said they never saw or heard any kind of trouble at the home. A woman who lives next door said the man and woman were always helpful to her, assisting her with leaf-raking and other chores. “Wonderful people,” said the elderly woman, who would not give her name.
“There’s a lot of information we don’t know yet, but as we learn it we’ll be happy to share it,” Litwin said Thursday outside the scene. “Unfortunately, this is a tragic incident for this community. This is a wonderful, quiet neighborhood and these types of incidents are not frequent.”
The incident began at 6:17 p.m. when police received the initial “panicked” call about an ongoing domestic violence situation, police said.
Officers responded to the home at Skyline and Lark drives and found the two adults engaged in a violent altercation.
“There was obviously a serious domestic violence incident going on with some obvious injuries to people involved,” Litwin said. “The details I have so far are that a struggle ensued … the struggle resulted in injuries to one of our officers.”
At least one officer fired on the man during that struggle, but police did not say how many shots might have been fired or how many times the man might have been hit by gunfire.
It was not immediately clear if the man was armed with any kind of weapon, Litwin said.
Officer Frank Iacone, the East Hartford Police Department’s union president, said “Thanks to the heroic actions of our officers, at least one and possibly more lives were saved last night. It’s a horrible situation for all involved.”
Paramedics arriving at the scene treated everyone involved and the man was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead just after 7 p.m., Litwin said.
Lt. Christopher Connolly said there was a big effort to save the woman.
“The fire department and medics had to take some pretty significant life-saving measures,” he said.
More officers swarmed the scene in the minutes after the shooting and police taped off a large swath of the yard and intersection outside as neighbors congregated around the cars. Officers also appeared to be lighting the backyard behind the home with a cruiser.
Several neighbors, who declined to be identified, said they heard no gunfire but did hear a chorus of sirens as police cars swarmed the area immediately after the incident. All described the neighborhood, which is in the southeast corner of town near Manchester and Glastonbury, as relatively quiet with many older residents.
State police and the state’s attorney responded to the scene to take control of the investigation into the use of force, per state protocol following an officer-involved shooting. The Eastern District Crime Squad was assigned to the case, as was Windham State’s Attorney Anne Mahoney, state police said Friday.
Courant staff writers Christine Dempsey and Jesse Leavenworth contributed to this story.
Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.
