Officer Alec Iurato, the sole police survivor of a suspected ambush, shot and killed the suspect Nicholas Brutcher after the initial attack, authorities said in an update this weekend. They also released bodycam footage of this encounter.
“Although some details of the investigation remain to be determined, it is evident from the evidence collected so far that Officer Iurato’s use of deadly force was justified,” said the statement from the Office of the Inspector General in the Connecticut State Division of Criminal Justice.
At the end of the incident, Brutcher, police Sgt. Dustin DeMonte, 35, and Officer Alex Hamzy, 34 were dead. Iurato and Nicholas’s brother Nathan Brutcher survived injuries.
Authorities have said that Iurato, DeMonte, and Hamzy arrived at the home on 310 Redstone Hill Road in Bristol, Connecticut, because of a Wednesday night 911 call about a possible domestic violence incident. This incident supposedly involved two siblings.
“Preliminary information appears to point to the 911 call being a deliberate act to lure law enforcement to the scene,” authorities said.
In their update, investigators said Nicholas Brutcher fired more than 80 rounds at the responding officers from behind. He was the person who made that 911 call, they said.
“Officers went to the side door of the house and spoke to Nathan Brutcher,” authorities said in their update. “They ordered Nathan Brutcher to show his hands and step out of the house. As Nathan Brutcher stepped out, gunfire erupted. Nicholas Brutcher fired well over eighty rounds attacking the officers from behind, fatally shooting both Sergeant DeMonte and Officer Hamzy, and wounding Officer Iurato.”
Police describe the bodycam footage from Iurato’s point of view.
“Shots fired. Shot fired. More cars. Send everyone,” he said. “Officer shot. Officer shot.”
Iurato groaned in pain as he made his way through the dark. Authorities said Nicholas Brutcher shot him in the leg.
A gunshot is audible. Someone, not Iurato, was opening fire. Then more gunshots. A woman is screaming and sometimes talking throughout the bodycam footage. At one point, she appeared to be yelling, “He’s dead!”
A man seems to be talking in the footage. Iurato used a vehicle for cover and fired a shot, though it is not clear at what. He stepped out, approached closer and shined a light in front of him.
“He’s down,” said what seemed to be another man.
“One down,” Iurato said. “Suspect down.”
“Despite sustaining a gunshot wound to his leg, Officer Iurato was able to make his way around the house and back to a Bristol Police Department cruiser,” authorities said. “From that vantage point, he fired one shot striking and killing Nicholas Brutcher.”
Authorities declined to release DeMonte’s and Hamzy’s body cams, as well as the latter portion of Iurato’s body cam, because the two slain officers are victims of homicide, they said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Dustin’s brother Phil DeMonte remembered him as a father, husband, and brother, according to WTIC.
“Friendly, sense of humor, honest, great character, just an amazing person,” Phil said.
Friend and former classmate Matt Lavoie described Hamzy as an “amazing individual, according to CT Insider.
“His laugh was infectious,” Lavoie said. “He’s one of the best men I’ve ever met in my life.”
[Screenshot via Office of Inspector General]
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