Statement Regarding Arrest of State Police Trooper Brian North for Killing Mubarak Soulemane

HARTFORD – Inspector General Robert Devlin today announced that Connecticut State Police trooper Brian North was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the first degree with a firearm for killing Mubarak Soulemane in January 2020. Devlin also released a report into North’s killing of Soulemane.

The following is a reaction from ACLU of Connecticut public policy and advocacy director Claudine Constant:

“Mubarak Soulemane should still be alive today. Justice would be police never killing Mubarak Soulemane in the first place and no one ever dying at the hands of police again, but today’s announcement is a welcome step toward individual accountability for Brian North. For two years, Mubarak Soulemane’s loved ones have called for police to be held accountable for killing him. No family should ever have to lose a loved one to police violence, let alone have to advocate for police to be held accountable afterward. Yet far too many families, especially Black families, have been left to grieve loved ones killed by police and never seen the individual police or system-wide actors held responsible. The Inspector General’s report is a thorough indictment of the system that makes it possible for police to kill a young Black man experiencing a mental health crisis and of previous prosecutors’ excuses for that system. Today’s news is a welcome change from the past, and preventing more police violence and racism will require broader system overhauls, including moving money out of policing and into the programs and services that build healthy and strong communities.”