A former Hartford police officer was charged with manslaughter Monday in the fatal shooting of a Black man in the midst of a mental health crisis, after a state investigation determined the officer failed to de-escalate the confrontation rather than resorting to deadly force. The charge against Joseph Magnano, who was fired by the Hartford Police Department following the Feb. 27 shooting of 55-year-old Steven Jones, comes after body camera footage contradicted a potential justification for the use of lethal force.
The Connecticut Office of the Inspector General filed the manslaughter charge after an investigation concluded that Magnano did not attempt to de-escalate the situation before opening fire, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the charges. Hartford Police Union President James Rutkauski confirmed Monday that Magnano turned himself in to law enforcement before being charged. Information about Magnano’s attorney was not immediately available.
Body camera footage of the incident showed Magnano arriving at the scene as three other officers were in the process of trying to calm Jones, who had been walking through the street holding a large knife and had used it to cut himself, according to a 911 call placed by his sister. Jones’s sister told dispatchers her brother was suicidal, the AP reported.
The shooting — which occurred roughly three months before the charges were filed — sparked widespread public outcry in Hartford and renewed questions about how the city’s police department handles calls involving people suffering mental health distress. Magnano was terminated from the department in March, as MSI previously reported in Hartford fires rookie officer Joseph Magnano after fatal knife shooting.
Jones’s family has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who told the Hartford Courant that “justice will not be served until a conviction is secured.” Crump has represented families in numerous high-profile police shooting cases across the country.