Father of 3 killed by Police gunfire

[TheeBadOne]

NEW HAVEN — Tyshan Napoleon spiraled into a violent psychosis in the month before he was killed in a police shootout Friday, his mother said Saturday.

The 27-year-old would nervously toy with knives as he spoke and toted a mysterious brown duffel bag everywhere he went, said Rosie Buie, Napoleon’s mother.

On Thursday, curiosity got the best of Buie and she peeked inside the brown bag. To her astonishment, she found a sawed-off shotgun.


"Then I knew my child was not in his right mind," Buie said of Napoleon, who she said is bipolar.

"He knew he didn’t have long for this world.

My son knew his time was coming."

Napoleon was shot dead by New Haven police on Friday morning after firing on officers at least three times from a sawed-off shotgun, police and witnesses said.

The events unfolded after Napoleon led police on a chase through New Haven and West Haven that ended at Columbus School on Blatchley Avenue in the city’s Fair Haven section.

Police Chief Francisco Ortiz Jr. said the six officers involved were justified in their actions.

Fillmore Street remained closed Saturday morning as the State Police Central District Major Crime Squad continued collecting evidence. State police are leading the investigation.

Napoleon’s mother had called police Friday morning saying her son was off his medication and was threatening to kill his girlfriend.

At her Hamden home on Saturday, Buie described Napoleon as a loving son who had grown increasingly unstable since going off his medication nine months ago.

"His bipolar was the demon of his seed and it wasn’t him," she said.

A psychiatrist saw Napoleon regularly but could not forcibly medicate him, his mother said.

"His temper was always hostile," Buie said. "If I said something to him, he snapped. He snapped at the children, and he never normally did that."

Napoleon had an arrest history of burglary, drug offenses, threatening and assault. Hamden police had an outstanding arrest warrant for Napoleon and had been to his address 15 times since 2001.

"He felt they were closing in and he didn’t want to get locked up," Buie said.

Napoleon was a New Haven native and father of three. His youngest child, a daughter, Spirit T.

Collins, was born just 12 days ago. He has two sons: Niajer Bucchanan, 8; and Andrea Goire, 6; and a younger brother, Javon Johnson, 9.

"He promised me after the baby was born he would turn himself in," his mother said.

Buie said her son took off Friday morning in his girlfriend’s black Ford Explorer with the intention of skipping town. He reportedly stopped by his grandmother’s house looking for money and was headed out of town when the police chase ensued, his mother said.

Buie said she picked up Napoleon’s daughter and girlfriend to keep them safe and called New Haven police from a payphone to alert them to the situation.

"I had to make sure they were safe," Buie said.

"Unfortunately, it was at the expense of my child."

By coincidence, Buie passed her son driving in Westville after placing the call to police.

"The last time I saw him he was riding by in her truck with police chasing him and he beeped his horn at us," she said.

Buie and other relatives interviewed Saturday said they wonder if Napoleon had to die.

"I called police with the intent of cornering my child and bringing him in," she said. "They could have shot him in the leg or arm to subdue him and not fill him full of holes."

Napoleon’s grandmother, Pearl Napoleon, said, "Maybe I’m just grieving but I just can’t see how police could defend themselves from what they did."

When faced with deadly force, police officers are not trained to shoot at extremities. They are trained to shoot at center mass, or a person’s torso.

Family members recalled Napoleon as an electronics whiz, caring father and dedicated family man.

"From a little boy, he would always find me," Pearl Napoleon said. "I would sit with him as a boy and talk and talk. It was ‘grandma this’ and ‘grandma that.’"

Napoleon worked most recently selling concessions at the Hillhouse High School field house, his mother said.

The incident was the third police-involved fatal shooting in four months.

On Dec. 16, police fatally shot Hiram Marrero after the mentally ill man threatened police with a knife.

And on Nov. 8, an off-duty officer shot Mack Lucky to death after a confrontation in an apartment building elevator.

Both incidents remain under investigation.


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[VinVega]

Sounds like a truly ugly situation no matter how you look at it.