Man executed two Connecticut police officers likely over prior traffic stop: officials
A Connecticut man fatally shot two police officers in a horrific 2022 ambush while in the grip of a spiral fueled by personal failures and drug and alcohol abuse, according to a report released by the state's Inspector General.
Nicholas Brutcher shot Bristol police Sgt. Dustin DeMonte and Officer Alex Hamzy dead in the driveway of his home after luring them there by placing a 911 call.
He was angered over a traffic stop that occurred hours earlier and a subsequent dressing down at the hands of his mother over the police encounter.
A third officer who fatally shot Brutcher at the scene was also struck in the hail of bullets.
Inspector General Robert Devlin's report – required in deadly force cases – found that Brutcher was plagued by personal problems at the time of the incident, including the impregnation of his ex-wife by a former friend.
"It must be emphasized that Brutcher is the murderer here," the report stated. "It would be wrong to place any blame for the attack on the traffic stop officers or others in Nicholas Brutcher’s life."
Brutcher and his brother were pulled over by police after an Oct. 12, 2022, bar fight. The killer engaged in a war of words with officers at the scene before he was let go.
Some time later, he called 911 to report that his sibling was acting aggressively and that he needed help.
As DeMonte, Hamzy, and Officer Alec Iurato approached his door, Brutcher opened fire with an AR-15 while crouching in some nearby bushes.
As his stunned parents, Joseph and Catrina Brutcher, looked on, he stood over his victims and continued to fire.
"How proud are you of me? How proud?" Brutcher said as he pulled the trigger, according to the report. Hamzy was hit a total of 24 times.
"I don’t think I ever screamed like that before in my life," Catrina Brutcher told investigators. "My son walked over to one of the officers that was down and just shot him point blank in his head. I was just screaming at him to stop."
Although Iurato was shot in the leg, he was able to take cover behind a car and take out Brutcher with a single shot.
Brutcher's friends and relatives told investigators that he had become suicidal in the months leading up to the killings.
On the night of the incident, police pulled Brutcher and his brother over after they brawled at a bar. Police called their mother to pick them up, and she berated him at the scene.
"I was embarrassed and I told him that," Catrina Brutcher said. "I said, `Nick you’re embarrassing your family; you’re embarrassing our name.’"
An analysis of Brutcher's phone suggested that a former partner thought she was pregnant, and that he believed he too was to soon become a father.
He had also repeatedly installed and uninstalled Grindr, a dating app for the LGBTQ community, and appeared to want to "keep this aspect of his life secret."
"The analysis of Nicholas Brutcher’s phone, interviews of family/friends, and a comprehensive review of all collected evidence provided insight into the stressors of Nicholas Brutcher’s life that likely contributed to the ambush attack on officers," the report said.
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