Questions remain five months after Bristol officers killed in ambush

Correction: Alec Iurato is referred to as a Sergeant in the above video. He is an officer.

(WFSB) - It’s been five months since the Connecticut community lost Lieutenant Dustin DeMonte and Sergeant Alex Hamzy.

The two officers were killed, and Officer Alec Iurato was injured after responding to what they thought was a routine domestic violence call. Instead, it was an ambush.

While the community continues to grieve, many of the details of that night are still unknown.

Eyewitness News has been trying to get answers.

Since that tragic night, we’ve been working to gather whatever information we can about what exactly happened.

Both the Connecticut State Police and Office of the Inspector General are conducting investigations. Eyewitness News has made multiple records requests to both agencies.

Here’s what we do know.

According to the Office of the Inspector General, around 11 pm the night of October 12, 2022, the three Bristol officers responded to 310 Redstone Hill Road for a 911 call believed to have been made by 35-year-old Nicholas Brutcher.

The call came in as a domestic violence call, but sources tell us Nicholas Brutcher was waiting for officers to arrive, dressed in camouflage, hiding in the bushes with an AR-15.

The Office of the Inspector General said Brutcher fired over 80 rounds, attacking the officers from behind.

In his preliminary report, State Inspector General Robert Devlin determined Brutcher was shot and killed by Officer Iurato, whose use of force was justified.

Still, there are many unanswered questions.

Body camera video shows that when officers arrived, they first spoke to Nathan Brutcher, Nicholas’ brother.

Watching the video, you can hear gunfire erupt as Nathan Brutcher is ordered to show his hands and step out of the house.

Nathan Brutcher was shot and released from the hospital a few days later, according to state police.

But we still don’t know who shot Nathan Brutcher, or if he did anything illegal that night.

There are also questions about what led up to the shooting.

Sources tell Eyewitness News there was a disturbance at Bleachers bar earlier that night involving the Brutchers. No information has been released yet on that incident but state police said they are looking into everything.

“I can say this. The entire case needs to be done to determine if there’s any culpability on anyone’s part, anyone’s part,” said Lt. Paul Vance.

Law enforcement expert and retired state police Lieutenant Paul Vance said in his opinion, there’s nothing unusual about the amount of time it’s taken to investigate that night.

Based on his experience, he said it could even take a few more months.

“It’s very time consuming. And certainly, you want every I dotted, and every T crossed. Nothing overlooked. That’s why these cases do take an immense amount of time,” Vance said.

There are two investigations happening at the same time right now.

State police are the lead investigators in the case, and the Office of the Inspector General does their own independent investigation, because it was an officer involved shooting.

“What he does, he ensures that all the facts are presented and reported. He also ensures that state law was followed at every level by everyone,” said Vance.

When asked in a statement when we could expect their report, state police said their investigation is “still ongoing” and add “we want to make sure we get all the facts and circumstances leading to the event and provide closure to the families and all law enforcement.”

Eyewitness News reached out to the Office of the Inspector General to ask when we can expect to see their investigation.

The inspector general said their investigation is ongoing.

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