Wanted by authorities, Jebrell Conley was at a West Haven car wash last week when he was shot, killed by members of Violent Crime Task Force
NEW HAVEN, CT — Saying the use of deadly force was justified in the officer-involved shooting death of Jebrell Conley at a West Haven car wash last Thursday, New Haven Chief of Police Karl Jacobson praised officers for “putting themselves between Conley and the public.”
“We’re lucky we’re not burying officers,” Jacobson said an hour after the Office of the Inspector General released its preliminary report in the shooting of the 36-year-old, who was being hunted on a warrant for a robbery and shooting.
According to the OIG, the New Haven Police Department Violent Crime Task Force learned that Conley, who they knew, had an outstanding warrant for his arrest on federal Hobbs Act robbery and related firearm charges.
At around 5 p.m., the Task Force received information that Conley was in the area of Ella Grasso Boulevard driving a black Hyundai Tucson with New Jersey registration plate Y40-SND, the OIG related.
A license plate reader hit showed the car was at the Splash Car Wash, 2 Boston Post Road, in West Haven. When task force members got there, the OIG said, they found Conley outside the vehicle, in the area where customers use vacuums to clean their cars.
Officers then tried to block in the Hyundai Tucson using their vehicles, and when Conley spotted them, he got back into the Tucson and, as officers moved in to apprehend Conley, he “appeared to fire one round that shattered the Hyundai Tucson’s front driver side window,” the OIG report reads.
Three Task Force officers fired at Conley: Connecticut State Police Sgt. Colin Richter, New Haven Police Sgt. Francisco Sanchez, and New Haven police Officer Michael Valente.
Conley was struck by several rounds, and fell out of the vehicle onto the ground, the report reads and noted that cops gave “Conley medical aid,” before he was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, the report from the OIG reads.
On Sept. 20, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of Conley’s death to be “gunshot wounds of torso and upper right extremity.” As of the date of this report, neither the death certificate nor toxicological report is available.
A handgun, with a high capacity magazine, was recovered by officers from the area where Conley had fallen from the vehicle, the report reads, noting also that, “initial inspection of the handgun suggests that it had jammed after firing one round.”
