HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The ambush killings of two Connecticut police officers was likely fueled by an angry interaction the gunman had with police earlier, along with building pressures in his personal life and his abuse of alcohol and drugs, according to a report released Wednesday by the state’s Inspector General.
The report detailing how Bristol police Sgt. Dustin DeMonte and Officer Alex Hamzy were gunned down in the driveway of a home also found that a third officer who survived the 2022 attack was justified in fatally shooting the gunman, identified by police as Nicholas Brutcher.
Inspector General Robert Devlin’s investigation — required by law in cases of deadly force — describe Brutcher in a downward spiral in the face of mounting debt, his ex-wife’s pregnancy with a former friend, and a scolding by his mother following a traffic stop that evening.
Nevertheless, “It must be emphasized that Nicholas Brutcher is the murderer here,” it said. “It would be wrong to place any blame for the attack on the traffic stop officers or others in Nicholas Brutcher’s life.”
Brutcher made a false call to 911 on the night of Oct. 12, 2022, asking for help with his brother, who he claimed had been acting aggressively since the two were pulled over in a traffic stop after a bar fight earlier that night, the report said.
As DeMonte, Hamzy and Officer Alec Iurato approached Brutcher's home in response to the call, Brutcher opened fire with an AR-15 style rifle from a hiding spot in some bushes in front of his parents' house next door, striking all three officers, according to the report. Wearing a camouflage shirt, pants and vest, he then stood over DeMonte and Hamzy where they had fallen and fired dozens more shots at them in front of his horrified parents, Joseph and Catrina Brutcher, who had come outside.
“How proud are you of me? How proud?” Brutcher said as he fired, possibly addressing his parents, according to the report.
His mother's nonstop screams were caught on police body camera video.
“I don’t think I ever screamed like that before in my life,” Catrina Brutcher told investigators. “My son walked over to one of the officers that was down and just shot him point blank in his head. I was just screaming at him to stop.”
Joseph Brutcher said his son was "in a trance-type thing.”
Iurato, struck in the leg, was able to get away. Bracing himself against a police cruiser, he fired a single shot, striking Brutcher and killing him, the report said.
Friends and relatives said Brutcher had in recent months talked about suicide, describing a morbid side that found its way into a stand-up comedy act that one friend called “dark and tasteless."
“He told jokes about dead babies, suicide, and disabled persons,” the report said.
The evening had begun at a bar where Brutcher had planned to perform during an open-mic forum, but instead got into a drunken fight with a patron, leading a bartender to call police, according to the report.
After Brutcher and his brother, Nathan, left the bar, officers pulled over their truck and had it towed, saying Nicholas Brutcher was too drunk to drive and Nathan Brutcher had an expired driver's license. Their mother was called to pick them up. At the scene, she scolded a belligerent Nicholas, an interaction that likely left him feeling humiliated, the report said.
“I was embarrassed and I told him that,” Catrina Brutcher said. “I said, `Nick you’re embarrassing your family; you’re embarrassing our name.'”
Authorities concluded there was not enough evidence to charge Nathan Brutcher, who was struck in the initial round of gunfire.
Nicholas Brutcher fired a total of 83 rounds: 59 from the assault rifle and 24 from a 9 mm handgun, the report said.
“Twenty-four shots landed on Officer Hamzy. Six shots landed on Sergeant DeMonte,” it said.
Brutcher had 14 registered firearms, according to the report, including the assault weapon, now banned in Connecticut. He had purchased the weapon in 2010 and was grandfathered in under the law, but there is no record that he applied for a required certificate of possession or the large capacity magazines in his possession.
His blood alcohol level at .234 was about three times the legal limit to drive, toxicology results showed.
An analysis of his phone suggested that Brutcher was in a “toxic” relationship with a woman, who on the day of the attack told him she may have been pregnant. Information on the phone also indicated he had gotten another woman pregnant, whose due date was in October 2022, around the time of the shooting, the report said.
“The analysis of Nicholas Brutcher’s phone, interviews of family/friends, and a comprehensive review of all collected evidence provided insight into the stressors of Nicholas Brutcher’s life that likely contributed to the ambush attack on officers,” the report said.
DeMonte, 35, was a 10-year veteran officer and co-recipient of his department’s 2019 Officer of the Year award. His wife was expecting their third child at the time of his death.
Hamzy, 34, worked eight years for his hometown police force. Like DeMonte, he was an adviser to a police cadet program.
Iurato joined the Bristol department in 2018.
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Thompson reported from Buffalo, New York.
FILE - Bristol Police officers console one another at the scene where two police officers killed, Oct. 13, 2022, in Bristol, Conn. The ambush killings of two Connecticut police officers was likely fueled by an angry interaction the gunman had with police earlier, along with building pressures in his personal life and his abuse of alcohol and drugs, according to a report released Wednesday, June 26, 2024 by the state’s Inspector General. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
FILE - Police investigate the scene where two police officers were killed the night before in Bristol, Conn., Oct. 13, 2022. The ambush killings of two Connecticut police officers was likely fueled by an angry interaction the gunman had with police earlier, along with building pressures in his personal life and his abuse of alcohol and drugs, according to a report released Wednesday, June 26, 2024 by the state’s Inspector General.(AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Humanitarian workers have started moving tons of aid that piled up at a U.S.-built pier off the Gaza coast to warehouses in the besieged Palestinian territory, the United Nations said Saturday, an important step as Washington considers whether to resume pier operations after yet another pause because of heavy seas.
It wasn't when the aid might reach Palestinians in Gaza, where experts have warned of the high risk of famine as the Israel-Hamas war is in its ninth month. This is the first time trucks have moved aid from the pier since the World Food Program, a U.N. agency, suspended operations there because of security concerns on June 9.
In just the last week, more than 10 million pounds were moved ashore, according to the U.S. military.
WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told The Associated Press this is a one-time operation until the beach is cleared of the aid and is being done to avoid spoilage. Further U.N. operations at the pier depend on security assessments, Etefa said. The U.N. is investigating whether the pier was used in an Israeli military operation last month to rescue three hostages in a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians.
If WFP trucks successfully bring the aid to warehouses inside Gaza, that could affect the U.S. military’s decision on whether to reinstall the pier, which was removed because of adverse weather on Friday. U.S. officials said they were considering not reinstalling it because of the possibility that the aid would not be picked up.
Lawlessness around humanitarian convoys is another challenge to aid distribution. The convoys have come under attack in Gaza. While most aid deliveries come by land, restrictions around border crossings and on what items can enter Gaza have further hurt a population that was already dependent on humanitarian aid before the war.
Meanwhile Saturday, a senior Biden administration official said the U.S. has presented new language to intermediaries Egypt and Qatar aimed at trying to jump-start stalled Israel-Hamas negotiations.
The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the effort that the White House has yet to publicly unveil, said the revised text focuses on negotiations that are to start between Israel and Hamas during the first phase of a three-phase deal that U.S. President Joe Biden laid out nearly a month ago.
The first phase calls for a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The proposal called for the parties to negotiate the terms of the second phase during the 42 days of phase one. Under the current proposal, Hamas could release all of the remaining men, both civilians and soldiers. In return, Israel could free an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The releases won’t occur until “sustainable calm” takes effect and all Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
The new proposed language, which the official didn't detail, aims to find a workaround of differences between Israel and Hamas about the parameters of the negotiations between phase one and phase two. Hamas wants negotiations centered on the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli jails in exchange for remaining living Israeli soldiers and male hostages held in Gaza, the official said. Israel wants negotiations to be broader and include the demilitarization of the territory controlled by Hamas.
Hamas political official Osama Hamdan said the group had yet to receive a new cease-fire proposal from mediators. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh spoke by phone with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence service to discuss the negotiations, Hamas said in a statement.
More than 37,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war since it began with Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll. The ministry said the bodies of 40 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours.
At least three people, including a 5-year-old girl, were killed and six others were wounded in a strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Israeli military didn't immediately comment.
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and another 250 people were taken hostage.
Israeli forces have been battling Palestinian militants in an eastern part of Gaza City, Shijaiyah, over the last week. Israel's military on Saturday noted “close-quarters combat.” Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes, according to the U.N.
“It’s like the first weeks of the invasion,” one resident, Mahmoud al-Masry said of the intensity of the fighting. “Many people were killed. Many houses were destroyed. They strike anything moving.”
Elsewhere, thousands of Palestinians who remained in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah fled Friday for Muwasi, a coastal tent camp designated by the Israeli army as a safe zone. Some told the AP that they evacuated because Israeli gunfire and missiles had come close to where they sheltered.
More than 1.3 million Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel’s incursion into the city in early May, while aid groups warn there are no safe places to go.
With the heat in Gaza reaching over 32 C (89 F), many displaced people have found tents unbearable. The territory has been without electricity since Israel cut off power as part of the war, and Israel also stopped pumping drinking water to the enclave.
“Death is better than it. It is a grave,” said Barawi Bakroun, who was displaced from Gaza City, as others fanned themselves with pieces of cardboard.
Wafaa Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Aamer Madhani in Asheville, North Carolina, and Samy Magdy in Cairo, contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s Israel-Hamas war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers move on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An Israeli soldier sits on the top of a tank near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Smoke rises in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A Palestinian wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, is brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli armoured vehicles move near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke rises after an explosion in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Medics treat a wounded child from an Israeli bombardment of Nuseirat refugee camp, at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The sun sets behind the buildings in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
