Former Hartford officer appears in court on manslaughter charge in fatal shooting of Stevie Jones
Former Hartford, Connecticut, police officer Joseph Magnano was arraigned on Friday after he was charged with first-degree manslaughter in connection to the fatal Feb. 27 shooting of Steven "Stevie" Jones.
Ahead of the hearing, Magnano's attorney Patrick Tomasiewicz told ABC News that his client plans to enter a plea of not guilty. ABC's Hartford affiliate WTNH reported that Magnano did not enter a plea on Friday.
Tomasiewicz did not make any comments in court and did not comment further when asked about the charge by ABC News.
James Rutkauski, president of the Hartford Police Union, told reporters outside the courtroom on Friday that Magnano acted in self-defense. Magnano is expected to appear in court again on July 21, WTNH reported.
The charge of first-degree manslaughter and the allegations are laid out in a report from the Connecticut Office of Inspector General (OIG), which was released on May 19. It came after Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam announced in March that he had terminated Magnano amid a probe into the incident after viewing the police body camera video footage.
"The undersigned submits that Magnano, by shooting Jones, under circumstances evincing an extreme indifference to human life, recklessly engaged in conduct that created a grave risk of death to Jones, and thereby caused his death," the OIG report stated. "The undersigned further submits that Magnano's use of deadly force was not legally justified."
The office of Connecticut Inspector General Eliot D. Prescott is prosecuting this case.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Jones family, welcomed the charge against Magnano in a May 19 statement, saying it was a "necessary and meaningful step toward accountability for Stevie Jones and his family."
"No family should ever have to bury a loved one because the systems meant to help them failed them so completely. We will not rest until his legacy produces real, lasting change," Crump added.
According to the OIG report, police responded to the scene after "a family member of Jones called 911 to seek assistance because Jones was having an acute mental health crisis." The caller indicated that Jones had "cut himself and had a knife in his hand," the report states. The caller was later identified as Audrey Jones, Stevie Jones' sister.
Body camera videos of the incident taken from the four officers who responded to the scene showed the minutes leading up to the fatal shooting and the moment Jones was fatally shot by the officer, according to the OIG. Magnano fired nine times at Jones, who was walking around with a knife in the street and repeatedly ignoring officers' orders to drop the knife, according to the OIG.
At the moment he was shot, Jones appeared to be walking slowly toward one of the officers, still holding the knife, while the other three officers surrounded him, according to video reviewed by ABC News. In the footage, Jones appeared to be walking at a steady, slow pace, holding the knife in his hand with the blade pointed down towards the ground when he was shot.
Jones, a father of two, died of his injuries on March 3.
Hartford Police Union President James Rutkauski, who condemned the mayor's decision to fire Magnano, told ABC News last month that Magnano's actions were "justified."
"I am going to let the process work out. But I'm telling you now, I firmly believe he will be acquitted," Rutkauski said.
He added, "We, the Hartford Police Union, support the matrix of law and due process, and we're going to abide by that, and we will respect the outcome that comes from this."
A spokesperson for the Hartford Police Department previously confirmed to ABC News that the mayor terminated Magnano from his position, but declined to provide further comment on the case.
