Brian North: The Soulemane Shooting, Trial, and Settlement

Brian North is the Connecticut state trooper who fatally shot 19-year-old Mubarak Soulemane through a car window in West Haven on January 15, 2020. He was charged with first-degree manslaughter with a firearm in April 2022, acquitted by a Milford jury on March 15, 2024, cleared by an internal Connecticut State Police investigation two months later, and promoted to sergeant that September. The state later reached a confidential settlement with Soulemane’s estate covering the trooper defendants. The Brian North Soulemane shooting was the first case in which a Connecticut state trooper was criminally charged for a killing in the line of duty.

What Happened on January 15, 2020

Soulemane, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had recently stopped taking his antipsychotic medication, was in a mental health crisis that afternoon.¹ Around 4:15 p.m. he walked into an AT&T store in Norwalk carrying a kitchen knife and tried to steal a phone, then got into a Lyft driven by Daniel Green. He slapped Green, demanded his phone, and, after Green pulled into a gas station and got out, climbed into the driver’s seat, locked the doors, and drove off.²

A high-speed pursuit followed on Interstate 95. Norwalk police terminated their chase under department policy; state troopers picked it up.³ Around 5:00 p.m., Soulemane exited at Exit 43 in West Haven, rear-ended a civilian car, and was boxed in by cruisers driven by Troopers North, Joshua Jackson, and Ross Dalling.

Officers approached with guns drawn. The driver’s door was locked. Trooper Jackson went to the passenger side, where a West Haven officer smashed the window. Jackson fired a Taser, which was ineffective against Soulemane’s heavy coat. Soulemane raised his arm, holding the knife. About 35 seconds after the troopers left their cruisers, North fired seven rounds through the driver-side window into Soulemane’s chest. Soulemane was pronounced dead at Yale New Haven Hospital at 6:03 p.m.²

Why North Was Charged

The investigation moved through two state’s attorneys before landing with Robert J. Devlin Jr., Connecticut’s first Inspector General, on November 3, 2021. The Office of the Inspector General had been created months earlier under the Police Accountability Act of 2020 with authority to independently investigate and prosecute police uses of force.⁴

On April 20, 2022, Devlin released his report and announced North’s arrest. He concluded that when North fired, “neither he nor any other person was in imminent danger of serious injury or death from a knife attack at the hands of Soulemane” and that “any belief that persons were in such danger was not reasonable.”² North was charged with first-degree manslaughter with a firearm under Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-55a.⁵ He was placed on administrative leave with his police powers suspended. Officers rallied at his arraignment in support;⁶ the ACLU of Connecticut and NAACP-CT welcomed the charges.⁷

The Trial and Acquittal

Trial began in Milford Superior Court in early March 2024 before Judge H. Gordon Hall. Testimony ran about a week and a half.⁸

Devlin prosecuted the case personally, arguing that North acted “prematurely and recklessly” and with “extreme indifference to human life.” He told jurors that Soulemane’s vehicle was immobilized, no officer was within reach of the knife, and no one was trying to enter the car when North fired. He also pointed out that in North’s first statements to investigators, North did not say he fired to protect fellow officers; that justification, Devlin argued, appeared only after North reviewed body camera footage with attorneys and union representatives.⁹

Prosecution witnesses included Lyft driver Daniel Green,¹⁰ civilian driver Jodi Longley, who said she saw no movement inside the car from where she stood,¹¹ and Soulemane’s mother, Omo Mohammed, who described the family’s efforts to manage his medication.¹²

Lead defense attorney Frank Riccio built his case around the knife and the broken passenger-side window, which he said created a “clear path” to the officers on that side. Trooper Jackson testified he was in “imminent fear or danger” and had no chance to de-escalate.¹¹ Riccio argued the prosecution was reviewing frame-by-frame footage that no officer could analyze in real time, and that North’s decision to fire multiple rounds through glass matched police training on how to shoot through a barrier and continue firing until the threat ended.¹³ In closing, he told jurors, “This is a terrible event. Someone lost their life, but the question is whether Trooper North is criminally responsible.”¹⁴

On March 15, 2024, after roughly two days of deliberation, the jury acquitted North of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm, second-degree manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide.⁸ The family’s attorney, Mark Arons, called them “disappointed and heartbroken.”¹⁵ ACLU of Connecticut executive director David McGuire said “too many families, especially Black families, are left to grieve loved ones killed by police, and never see the individual police or system-wide actors held responsible.”¹⁶

Internal Review, Return to Duty, and Promotion

The Connecticut State Police opened an internal affairs investigation on March 27, 2024. Its 14-page report, completed by May 13, 2024, cleared North. Investigators relied on the department’s use-of-force matrix, and a subject-matter expert in edged-weapons tactics, Trooper David Tharas, concluded that because a knife is a deadly weapon, North’s use of deadly force fit training guidelines. The report called the shooting “not excessive or unnecessary.”¹⁵

North returned to full duty and was promoted to sergeant on September 5, 2024, assigned to the Connecticut State Police Emergency Services Unit.¹⁷ The Connecticut State Police confirmed the change in status without further public comment.

The Civil Settlement

Soulemane’s estate filed a civil lawsuit in 2021 alleging negligence against the state troopers and West Haven police officers involved. In December 2024, Connecticut reached an agreement in principle to settle the trooper portion of the case. The settlement amount was not disclosed, and neither the state nor the troopers admitted wrongdoing. Arons, the family’s attorney, said the family was “very pleased with the result.”¹⁸

The claims against the city of West Haven remain pending. Arons was scheduled to depose North in July 2026 as part of that continuing litigation.¹⁵

Why the Case Drew National Attention

The Police Accountability Act of 2020, passed months after Soulemane’s death, narrowed the circumstances in which Connecticut officers may use deadly force, required them to exhaust reasonable alternatives, expanded body-camera rules, imposed a duty to intervene against excessive force by colleagues, and created the Office of the Inspector General to independently investigate and prosecute police shootings.⁴¹⁹

North’s prosecution was the first significant test of that new machinery. The Inspector General brought charges that local prosecutors had not historically pursued, but the jury acquitted. Arons, speaking after the verdict, said, “There is nothing wrong with the law,” and argued that juries remain “deferential to police.”²⁰

1
Vermont Public. Man Killed by CT State Trooper Struggled With Mental Health, Family Say at Trial
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Connecticut Office of the Inspector General. Report on the Shooting of Mubarak Soulemane
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New Haven Independent. Mubarak Soulemane
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CT House Democrats. Police Accountability Act
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Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Press Release on Arrest of Trooper Brian North
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CT Insider. Police Rally as CT State Trooper Arraigned
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ACLU of Connecticut. Statement Regarding Arrest of State Police Trooper Brian North
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CT Mirror. CT Trooper Brian North Found Not Guilty in Mubarak Soulemane Shooting
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CT Mirror. Brian North Trial
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NBC Connecticut. Lyft Driver Who Drove Teen Testified in Trial of State Trooper Brian North
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NBC Connecticut. Prosecutors Could Rest Their Case in Trial of State Trooper Brian North
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NBC Connecticut. Man Killed by Connecticut State Trooper Had Mental Health Problems
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CT Post. Brian North Trial
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News from the States. Attorneys Close Arguments in CT Trooper Brian North Trial
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New Haven Register. Brian North CSP Probe in Soulemane Fatal Shooting
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ACLU of Connecticut. Reaction to Not Guilty Verdict for State Trooper Brian North
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CT Public. Partial Settlement in CT State Trooper’s Deadly Shooting
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NBC Connecticut. Settlement Reached in Mubarak Soulemane Civil Case
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University of Connecticut Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy. CT Police Use of Force Report
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Vermont Public. Soulemane Family Reacts After Brian North Verdict