White Hartford Police officer Arrested and Charged in Fatal shooting of Steven Jones

From [HERE] A Hartford police officer was charged with manslaughter on Monday in the fatal shooting of Steven Jones, a 55-year old Black man, who was suffering from a mental health crisis.

The Connecticut Inspector General’s Office, which is responsible for reviewing every police shooting in the state, filed an arrest warrant for former officer Joseph Magnano after a roughly two-and-a-half-month investigation into the shooting.

Magnano, who was fired from his job with the Hartford Police Department in March, was arrested on Monday and arraigned in Hartford Superior Court, where he was released on $50,000 bail.

The criminal charge filed against Magnano marks only the second time that the Inspector General’s Office has sought to prosecute a police officer for killing someone while in the line of duty. 

The special prosecutor’s office similarly charged Brian North, a Connecticut State Trooper, with manslaughter in 2022 after he shot and killed 19-year-old Mubarak Soulemane following a high-speed chase.

North was eventually acquitted by a jury after a week-long trial.

Eliot Prescott, who was appointed as inspector general last year, made the decision to charge Magnano for killing Jones in a relatively short period of time compared to many other investigations that the office has conducted in recent years.

Police body camera footage captured nearly every angle of the shooting in Harford on Feb. 27.