The Office of the Inspector General has determined that a Hartford police officer who fatally shot a man on Oct. 16, 2023 was justified in the shooting.
Officer Brian Sulliman was on patrol that afternoon and tried to stop a gray four-door Honda Accord with Florida plates on Westland Street that matched the description of a vehicle that was involved in a threatening incident at a Hartford car dealership earlier that day, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
Police had received two 911 calls from the dealership from people who reported that two men had gone into the dealership and one threatened to shoot and employee when he was told he could not smoke marijuana inside the building, according to the Inspector General’s report.
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As soon as the driver of the Honda stopped on Westland Street, Grant got out of the passenger side and walked to the back of the vehicle, and the driver fled as Sulliman approached the car, according to the Office of the Chief Inspector.
Grant was holding a gun in his left hand and raised his arm in Sulliman’s direction and Sulliman fired several times, striking
Grant, according to the report that was released on Friday.
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Grant fell in the middle of the intersection of Westland Street and Barbour Street and he died after being taken to Saint Francis Hospital.
The Office of the Chief Inspector said a handgun was recovered near the spot where Grant fell.
The investigation determined that “Sulliman used deadly force to defend himself from what he reasonably believed to be a threat of serious injury or death” and found the use of force to be objectively reasonable and justified.
