Bodycam video shows wounded cop gunning down man who killed 2 officers responding to fake 911 call
BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT: Alec Iurato, a Connecticut police officer, shot and killed the man who gunned down two police officers after luring them to his residence with a fake 911 call. Iurato, 26, was one of three officers who attended Nicholas Brutcher's Bristol home on October 12 and had his body camera footage made public by the police department. The gunfire claimed the lives of 35-year-old Dustin DeMonte and 34-year-old Alex Hamzy.
During the incident, Brutcher unexpectedly started firing on the police as they arrived, launching almost 80 rounds at the unwary officers. In the body camera footage, Iurato shouted for backup while hiding behind a tree. “Shots fired, shots fired, more cars, send everyone!” he yelled into his radio. Soon afterward, he said, “Officer shot, officer shot,” as he leaned on the tree and groaned with pain from his wounded leg. Iurato then hid behind a cop car and fired a shot that killed Brutcher in an instant, despite being shot in the leg himself. After gunning down the criminal, Iurato was heard saying, "one down" on his radio. The 911 call by Brutcher, according to police, was "a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene." Although, it is still unknown what drove Brutcher to commit the assault.
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Danny Rodriguez, one of the witnesses, reported hearing three separate gunshots as well as a total of 30 rounds. During the shooting, he claims to have overheard another woman screaming, "You killed them!” “I heard a whole war going on behind me,” Rodriguez said, according to KOCO. The New York Times reported that Rodriguez saw a man carrying a gun leave the Brutcher residence while wearing camouflage. Before being shot, a second man pursued the camouflaged man and made an effort to hold him back.
State troopers and investigators are still gathering evidence, according to Connecticut State Police Sgt Christine Jeltema and the “very complex” investigation is still underway. During a press conference, she added that it was an "isolated incident" with "no threat to the community." The deaths were the consequence of "senseless violence," Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould continued and they have caused the department "sadness and grief." “They answered a call to duty, and they responded without hesitation, and that's what they did every night before that,” Gould said. “And that's what all our officers do and will continue to do day after day.” "Words cannot express the sadness and grief that brings me before you this morning,” Gould concluded.
The fake 911 call was made by Brutcher at about 10.30 pm after he had reportedly been expelled from a bar earlier in the evening. The two-time divorced father's neighbors claimed that he was "always drinking" and that he frequently stopped over to check on his brother Nathaniel. The incident resulted in Nathaniel getting shot which he survived. Another neighbor characterized Nathaniel as a "man-child" and "skater punk" who was perpetually inebriated and did little to get his life together. “Nate is high as a kite every time I see him. But cocaine doesn't drive you to call cops and shoot them,” he said.
Sergeant DeMonte was married to Laura and the pair shared two children while a third kid was on the way for the couple. He was recruited in 2012 and served as a school resource officer. In addition to serving as an advisor for the Explorer Cadet program, DeMonte was selected as the 2019 Officer of the Year. Officer Hamzy who worked in the patrol division after joining in 2014, leaves behind his wife Katie, his parents, and two sisters. Iurato was employed in the division in 2018 and given a position in the patrol section. In an odd turn of events, it was discovered that Brutcher and Hamzy were Facebook friends. On the social networking site, Hamzy reportedly used the user name Alex Yzmah. It's unclear whether the two had any prior acquaintance. Additionally, it was discovered that Brutcher and former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez both attended Bristol Central High School. According to the New York Post, Brutcher and Hernandez shared a number of friends and were both football players on the school's squad. Given that Hernandez was a freshman and Brutcher was a senior, it is unknown if they were closer than that. Numerous Connecticut police officers showed up at the scene of the shooting the following day to pay their condolences to the murdered officers.