LUCAS WILLARD: WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes has reviewed the over hour and a half long footage and joins us now. Hi Josh.
JOSH LANDES: Hello Lucas.
So Josh, bring me up to speed. What's the context of this body camera footage that was released?
Biagio Kauvil, the gentleman who died in the eventual confrontation with police, was in the midst of a mental health crisis. He actually, himself, had called 911 repeatedly and alerted law enforcement going up the chain all the way to the FBI about his paranoia around being surveilled, about conspiracies against him, about a machine in the basement of a home, calling to him to steal his essence, essentially. He was in a really poor state of mind, and communicated that very directly in messages for essentially help with the problem to law enforcement. At the time he was killed, he was legally carrying a firearm that he had a license for in the room of his younger sibling at his mother's house in Hinsdale. There was a locked door between him and police. At that point, everyone had left the house, save for the police and him, and leading up to that moment where they breached the door, Kauvil's mother had told them that while Kauvil had a license to carry. She did not believe him to be carrying a firearm when they entered.
So Josh, as we mentioned that this case revolves around this body camera footage, who was wearing the cameras and what are some of the major takeaways from the footage that was captured?
Dalton police officers Chelsea Eichstedt and Jacob Tiffany were wearing the cameras. The Hinsdale Police Department — and it's important to note, Hinsdale is a small community up in the hills of the Berkshires, Dalton is comparatively larger — the Hinsdale PD does not have body cameras equipped at this time. The cops from the Hinsdale department on the scene were Chief Shawn Boyne and Sergeant Dom Crupi, who make up essentially the leadership of the department, as well as Officer Jeremy Spratt, who would go on to fire two shots in the situation, one that hit Crupi and one that killed Biagio Kauvil. The home in Hinsdale on Off South Street, was, at the time, fully decorated for Christmas when the police choose to enter the home and communicate with Kauvil through the locked door. While agitated, he is speaking clearly and relatively calmly to police about his paranoia. He's asked questions by Crupi through the door to talk about his girl problems, the nature of the perceived conspiracy against him, his past relationship with Crupi, who helped him get his stuck car out of a driveway from snow and ice. So, there was this conversation going in the moments leading up to them breaching the door and ultimately killing him. When Eichstedt of the Dalton Police Department surveilled Kauvil through the window of the bedroom he was in. She doesn't see a gun, and it won't be until around 10 minutes later when police enter the room and see that he has a gun in his hand. When they enter the room — and again, this is the middle of a conversation — they burst in through the door with no warning, of course, Kauvil immediately raises his hands in a gesture of surrender, where the gun is clearly visible up by his head. It certainly is not pointed at anybody. He then asks them to kill him. The shot that ultimately goes off from Kauvil's gun is not fired directly at the officers involved in the takedown. The bullet that is discharged wounds Sergeant Crupi of Hinsdale and hits Chief Boyne, also of Hinsdale. It's discharged when he's face down on this bed beneath essentially a pile of police officers who have tackled and tased him. Officer Spratt of Hinsdale ultimately fires two shots, the aforementioned one that goes directly into Crupi's arm and the other one into Kauvil's head while he lies face down on the bed. From the footage, it's very clear that Kauvil's head injury is catastrophic, and he died not long afterwards when he was transported to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield.
And Josh at his press conference when he released the report, Berkshire DA Timothy Shugrue said that while the use of force in Kauvil's killing was lawful, he did call for an independent investigation into the Hinsdale Police Department. He also criticized their leadership, specifically identifying Chief Boyne and Sergeant Crupi, as well as their policies. And Josh, you've reported that voters in Hinsdale have already approved an audit of the police department. So looking at this footage, did anything stand out to you given those community calls for scrutiny?
So one of the crucial moments in the video is that, you have two departments responding to the scene, the officers from Dalton and the officers from Hinsdale- As it's in Hinsdale, the scene is being run by Chief Boyne. The Dalton officers are mutual aid officers. They essentially lack any authority on what is the Hinsdale Police Department's, their coverage area, what they're responsible of. It was very much Boyne's decision to break into the locked room that Kauvil was isolated in. This comes after Dalton Officer Eichstedt says that, well, you know, he's not going anywhere, and fellow Dalton Officer Tiffany, he makes a proposal that, well, you know, we're going to wait, right, if he's not going anywhere, and there's no one else in the house? But Boyne overrules them and says that Kauvil is "a risk to himself by his own statements." So, per the DA 's report, Crupi was actually off duty at the time. He came to the scene coming straight from the gym after a night shift that had ended at seven in the morning. Crupi and his temperament is also something worth noting before the door is breached- He's seen grinning at his fellow officers just moments before breaking into Kauvil's room, which only happens a few minutes into this conversation with Kauvil. The talk with Kauvil through the door is clearly intended to more distract him and get his guard down before they breach the door. Boyne also makes some odd remarks in the lead up to the breach, talking about Kauvil's throat, referring to getting his fat you-know-what sitting on the bed, and has his officers tackle Kauvil, who, again, when they enter, has his arms raised and not towards the police when they enter. Shugrue has specifically called the takedown method inappropriate. After the dust settles, Eichstedt vocalizes shock that Spratt of the Hinsdale Police Department, who ended up shooting and killing Kauvil, "just started shooting," and criticizes him for both shooting Crupi and shooting so closely to his fellow officers in general. On top of that, Shugrue has publicly noted that Boyne didn't respond to the Dalton officers' request for clarification about what they were heading into on the way over to the house, not answering a key question about whether or not it was a mental health check. Now, I've reached out to both the Hinsdale Police Department and the administrator of the community for reactions to the DA's report and pointed criticism of the department. Neither got back to me.
And that's WAMC Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes reporting. Thank you, Josh.
Thank you Lucas.
