After hearing eight days of testimony, the jury in the trial of Connecticut State Trooper Brian North began deliberations late Wednesday afternoon.
The deliberations began after the state and the defense presented closing arguments to the jurors.
Wednesday morning, the state called one rebuttal witness to refute earlier witness testimony regarding police use-of-force training.
On Tuesday, the defense rested its case. The attorneys ended their case after calling two experts to testify about various factors surrounding police stops and use-of-force cases.
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North has been charged with first-degree manslaughter in connection to the shooting death of 19-year-old Mubarak Soulemane after a police pursuit that ended in West Haven on Jan. 15, 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Two experts with a background in law enforcement testified on Tuesday. One of the experts testified to the way the officers positioned themselves around the car Soulemane was in.
He said one of the factors that played a role in their level of response was the information they had at the time, which was that Soulemane was armed and was allegedly involved in a carjacking.
“The positioning of the officers makes sense to me from those considerations," said criminal justice assistant professor Paul Taylor.
The other expert on use-of-force testified that North did try to de-escalate the situation before firing his weapon. The expert said for de-escalation to work, there needs to be some level of compliance from the suspect.
North testified Friday that he fired several rounds at Soulemane after he saw he had a knife and believed the other troopers were in danger.
