According to Investigators, the Man Who Killed Two Connecticut Police Officers Was Most Likely Motivated by a Previous Traffic Stop
According to a report released by the state’s Inspector General, a Connecticut man fatally shot two police officers in a terrible 2022 ambush while on a downward spiral caused by personal failures and drug and alcohol abuse.
Nicholas Brutcher fatally shot Bristol police Sgt. Dustin DeMonte and Officer Alex Hamzy in his driveway after luring them there with a 911 call.
He was enraged by a traffic check that occurred hours earlier, as well as a subsequent dressing down by his mother following the police contact.
A third cop, who fatally shot Brutcher on the scene, was also struck by the barrage of gunfire.
Inspector General Robert Devlin’s report, which is necessary in fatal force cases, revealed that Brutcher was dealing with personal issues at the time of the incident, including the impregnation of his ex-wife by a former friend.
“It must be emphasized that Brutcher is the murderer here,” the report read. “It would be wrong to place any blame for the attack on the traffic stop officers or others in Nicholas Brutcher’s life.”
Brutcher and his brother were hauled over by police following a bar fight on October 12, 2022. Before being released, the killer engaged in a verbal altercation with officers on the site.
Some time later, he called 911 to say that his sibling was acting aggressively and needed assistance.
As DeMonte, Hamzy, and Officer Alec Iurato approached his door, Brutcher opened fire with an AR-15 while hiding in the nearby bushes.
As his shocked parents, Joseph and Catrina Brutcher, watched, he stood over his victims and began to shoot.
“How proud are you of me?” “How proud?” Butcher stated as he pulled the gun, according to the investigation. Hamzy was hit 24 times.
“I don’t think I ever screamed like that before in my life,” Catrina Brutcher told investigators. “My kid approached one of the downed officers and shot him in the head. “I was just screaming for him to stop.”
Despite being injured in the leg, Iurato was able to seek cover behind a car and eliminate Brutcher with a single shot.
Brutcher’s friends and family informed authorities that he had turned suicidal in the months preceding the deaths.
On the night of the event, police stopped Brutcher and his brother after they brawled in a bar. Police summoned their mother to bring them up, and she berated him on the scene.
“I was embarrassed, and I told him that,” Catrina Brutcher explained. “I said, ‘Nick you’re embarrassing your family; you’re embarrassing our name.'”
An investigation of Brutcher’s phone revealed that a former partner believed she was pregnant and that he, too, would soon become a father.
He had also frequently installed and removed Grindr, an LGBTQ dating app, and seemed to want to “keep this aspect of his life secret.”
“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 investigators concluded.