Caleb Tisdol, wounded in 2017 New Britain police shooting, charged with armed robbery of two people in January
Caleb Tisdol, the teenager who was wounded when New Britain police fatally shot Zoe Dowdell three years ago, was arrested Monday on charges that he robbed two people at gunpoint this winter.
Police have been searching for Tisdol since October, when he missed a court appearance on more than 10 felony charges connected with a series of carjackings and robberies across central Connecticut in 2017.
Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service early Monday located Tisdol, 18, in Hartford, where he was taken into custody without incident.
Tisdol’s 2017 cases have been at the center of controversy since the shooting.
Various social justice organizations have accused police of racism in the death of Dowdell, an aspiring rapper who was known as Gangstalicious. Some activists have claimed Tisdol and codefendant Noah Young — passengers in Dowdell’s car when he was shot — were charged unfairly.
Students at Yale University organized a legal defense fund for Tisdol and Young after their arrests, and held several protest rallies. A petition on Action Network to drop the charges against Tisdol and Young has gained 930 signatures.
Police in central Connecticut have given a different version of events. Hartford, West Hartford, Wethersfield, North Haven, Windsor and East Hartford all filed robbery charges against Tisdol after the shooting.
New Britain police said their officers surrounded Dowdell’s car on the evening of Dec. 14, 2017 because they suspected the occupants were scouting for robbery targets. Officers fired into the car because they feared for their lives when it appeared to swerve toward them as he tried to get away, they said.
New Britain had put a special task force on patrol that day to curb a string of carjackings and robberies that had been going on for week. Detectives were looking for a green Toyota Paseo with New Hampshire plates, and followed a car with that description as it drove down streets near the Newington line.
Video from police cruiser dashboard cams showed several police cars converge on the car with Dowdell at the wheel. There were several minor crashes as police tried to block the car in on Chapman Street. When a patrol car hit it, the Toyota went up a snowy embankment and along a sidewalk; police standing in the way jumped aside and opened fire.
Tisdol, then 15, was riding in the front seat, and appeared to raise his hands in surrender. But the Toyota kept going and police fired 28 rounds, hitting the car 13 times. Dowdell was killed; Tisdol suffered gunshot wounds and Young sustained cuts.
The community was incensed when Fairfield State’s Attorney John Smriga imposed a virtual news blackout on the case, and didn’t release the videotapes until after a year-long investigation. New Britain officials were also angered, and the state has since promised quicker release of evidence in such cases.
Smriga concluded the five officers who fired their guns were justified. The felony charges again Tisdol and Young remain. Tisdol was released to home confinement, but court officials reported in October that he had skipped a court appearance and ordered him rearrested.
According to New Britain police, Tisdol apparently remained in the area even though he was being sought. In an affidavit in late January, Detective Paul O’Connor reported that police identified Tisdol as the suspect in the armed robbery of two people outside a convenience store in the city’s North Oak section.
The victims were at the Smoke Palace on North Street shortly after midnight on Jan. 25, police said. They were robbed at gunpoint, with the attacker making off with a wallet, cash and other valuables.
O’Connor reported that after interviewing witnesses and reviewing security camera footage, he determined that Tisdol was the robber. Hartford police and the FBI also gave O’Connor information about social media accounts with photos appearing to show Tisdol posing with weapons.
New Britain police on Monday charged Tisdol with two counts of first-degree robbery for the January crimes. O’Connor’s affidavit also identifies Tisdol as a suspect in another New Britain robbery as well as a “person of interest” in robberies in two other towns.
Tisdol is to be arraigned Tuesday morning at New Britain Superior Court.
