Newly released body camera footage shows the tense moments between Waterbury police officers and a suspect accused of smoking crack in a stolen car.
The footage released by the city Friday shows the suspect, 44-year-old Jose Bellido-Rosado, of Waterbury, reaching for an officer's gun as they try to arrest him. He’s also accused of biting an officer during the altercation.
The footage also shows one of the officers kicking Bellido-Rosado repeatedly. Bellido-Rosado is now in the hospital with a broken rib among other injuries, according to the city.
“He was reaching for one of the officers’ firearms, he broke the safety on the holster, bit one of the officers, injured another officer,” Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski said at a news conference Friday.
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A bystander recorded video of the incident and uploaded it to social media, which caught the eye of the mayor. He saw it before the full body camera footage was able to be downloaded.
“Just to be sure we knew what was going on, I did call the Waterbury state’s attorney, to review the situation,” Pernerewski said. “The state’s attorney determined that the amount of force used was completely appropriate under the circumstances.”
The incident started when a woman called police Thursday to report that her car had been stolen. The mayor said the woman spotted her car being driven by a man and followed it into a parking lot on Wolcott Street.
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“I would not recommend anyone do this, but she confronted the driver of the car. When she opened the door, she believed he was smoking crack cocaine, she told him it was her car, he left without any incident,” the mayor said.
Bellido-Rosado started walking away, and that’s when police approached him, and the body camera video starts.
“He is a convicted felon with outstanding felony violation of probation, a warrant for an unrelated incident, and he’s now going to be charged with theft of a motor vehicle, interfering with an officer, two counts of assault on an officer, and possession of drug paraphernalia,” the mayor added.
Bellido-Rosado remains in the hospital as of Friday afternoon. The officers were treated for minor injuries and released.
It’s unclear when Bellido-Rosado will be arraigned on the charges.
“The use of force sometimes is necessary to stop a suspect from resisting as it was in this case. As the body camera video shows, the police acted with restraint,” Pernerewski said. “We know this suspect was attempting to get a weapon, would have escalated the situation, and I want to commend the responding officers for responding so well.”
