LUCAS WILLARD: WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes joins us now. Josh, welcome to the show.
JOSH LANDES: Hello Lucas.
You were at Berkshire County District Attorney Timothy Shugrue’s press conference today about Wednesday’s shooting. What did we learn about what happened in Hinsdale?
Shugrue made it very clear that he considered the events that led up to the death of Biagio Kauvil a tragedy that resulted from Berkshire County lacking sufficient mental health resources. He said in contrast to the Trump administration’s handling of the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this week, he was not assigning any blame for what happened only two days into the shooting investigation. Shugrue, a Democrat, explained that the row of dominos that ended in Kauvil being shot in the head by a yet-unidentified Berkshire County police officer Wednesday morning began on the national level.
SHUGRUE: “Mr. Kauvil was displaying paranoid and delusional thoughts that he expressed on social media and in conversation with the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center, otherwise known as NTOC, and to his family and to law enforcement. He shared that he felt as though he was being listened to by law enforcement, was being attacked by organized crime groups and others. This was relayed by the NTOC. He thought that someone was trying to lure him into the house into a machine in his basement that would damage the body and drain the life and the machine induces suicidal thoughts.”
That led the NTOC to contact the Dalton police and report Kauvil’s behavior. Shugrue was keen to stress that at no point was Kauvil wanted by the FBI; Shugrue says the federal agency felt that local law enforcement should perform a wellness check on Kauvil.
So, what happened next?
Shugrue says a call to be on the lookout for Kauvil was issued on Wednesday morning, which further escalated the situation.
SHUGRUE: “Between 9:42 a.m. and 9:57 a.m., there were five abandoned 911 calls placed and or returned to by Mr. Kauvil. On one call, there was an audio muffled banging consistent with the sound of someone repeatedly hitting the phone receiver. These calls further amplified law enforcement and the concern for his safety.”
Around 10 a.m., Hinsdale Police Chief Shawn Boyne reported that officers were responding to 53 Off South Street to check in on Kauvil. The responding Hinsdale officers received backup from the Dalton Police Department. Through 911 calls, Shugrue says his office has pieced together a timeline about what happened over the next hour. On the phone with dispatchers behind a locked door at his mother’s residence, Kauvil allegedly expressed more paranoid, agitated thoughts, and was heard to be having tense, argumentative conversations with family members. What happens next remains unclear, and is the pivotal moment of the interaction. After speaking directly with Kauvil, police officers contact ambulance services to send a vehicle to the residence at around 10:50 a.m., and eight minutes later, they choose to breach the locked door of the room Kauvil had shut himself in. Here’s how DA Shugrue decided what happened in the frenzied seconds that followed:
SHUGRUE: “When officers entered the bedroom, one officer was able to wrap his arms around Mr. Kauvil’s waist and attempt to restrain him against the wall. However, he maintained the gun officers work to restrain him on the bed. Mr. Kauvil’s gun then fires. Shortly after the shot, an officer uses the taser. Mr. Kauvil is tased and briefly subdued. However, when the effects of the Taser diminish, he again becomes agitated, stating, Kill me. Kill me. The Taser is deployed a second time. Mr. Kauvil is once again, briefly subdued, but then resumes to struggle. An officer orders Mr. Kauvil to drop the gun. An officer discharged the firearm, and an officer is hit by a single round in a friendly fire, and six seconds later, a second round is discharged, striking the civilian, Mr. Kauvil in the head.”
The two officers who were shot are the aforementioned Police Chief Shawn Boyne, who has since been released from the hospital, and Hinsdale Sgt. Dom Crupi, who was in surgery yesterday and is expected to recover. While Shugrue and his office didn’t officially confirm their identities, they are the only people who fit the description of the situation provided by the DA. Both are on leave.
Did police know Kauvil had a gun when they chose to breach the locked door to the room he was hiding in?
DA Shugrue said Kauvil apparently had a license to carry for a long period of time, but that officers were under the impression that they didn’t think he had a firearm on him when they made their decision.
SHUGRUE: “When they went in there, he's left-handed, it’s in the left hand. They didn't see the firearm at first. I’ve seen it, and we've still photo’d it, showing the black handgun in his left hand. Again, he is left-handed, it's in his hand, so they didn't know that at that point in time. I'm not sure when they became aware of it – again, because we haven't spoken with them yet – but they're on top of him, underneath there, and that's when the firearm shoots and it hits the officer, immobilizes him, goes through his hand, and that bullet goes through and hits the chief in the in the chest and lodges in his vest, which we have that projectile.”
Shugrue said he could not answer WAMC’s questions about why a mental health responder was not present for the mental wellbeing check, or what led police to make the fateful decision to breach the door that ended in bloodshed and death -- especially given Kauvil’s well expressed paranoia around law enforcement. Shugrue suggested police planned to subdue him in order to get him in the ambulance they had called to take him to a local hospital for treatment. The DA said he hadn’t had a chance to interview all of the officers involved in the incident yet, and that question of the officers involved facing charges for the death of Kauvil was premature. There is body cam footage of the incident that has not been released to the public yet.
WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes. Josh, thank you so much.
Thank you Lucas.
