Bristol officer who survived 2022 ambush provides new details on deadly attack

HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB) - New details have emerged about the tragic night two Bristol police officers were shot and killed.

The details come straight from the officer who survived the ambush attack in October of 2022.

Officer Alec Iurato spoke to a podcast hosted by former NYPD detectives.

Officer Iurato spoke in detail about what happened the day Lieutenant Dustin Demonte and Sergeant Alex Hamzy were murdered.

The Full Gold Shields podcast is more than an hour and a half long.

“It was, it was probably the nicest day that you could imagine in October. It is about 70 degrees, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful, right? It was like the perfect day,” Officer Iurato said.

Alec Iurato says October 12th, 2022 started out as a perfect day training with his best friends.

That active shooter training would be put to the test just hours later.

Iurato, Lieutenant Dustin Demonte and Sergeant Alex Hamzy were responding to what they thought was a routine domestic call in Bristol when they were ambushed.

Demonte and Hamzy were shot and killed.

Iurato described realizing he was the only one who had survived.

“I start moving towards the driveway, and that’s when I ended up seeing him laying there in the driveway. And that’s the first time that I saw what ended up happening to Alex and Dustin. That moment broke me. Not just because of what I had to do, but because of the fact that I had no idea what truly happened to Alex and Dustin,” said Officer Iurato.

Iurato would end up killing the gunman. He was later inducted to the National Law Enforcement Officer Hall of Fame for his heroism.

Iurato gives the credit to his fellow officers who quickly arrived and helped save his life.

“I revert that back to the fact that we were in that active shooter training, and it couldn’t have been, oddly enough, a perfect time for that training, because our guys were completely squared away and they handled it perfectly,” he said.

Iurato is now a part of Bristol’s training division. He hopes to use the experience to help future officers.

“I look at it as, you know, my opportunity to give back because the reason why I’m here is because of those guys that taught me. Now, if I can take anything from these courses, from my experiences from that horrible incident, and push that forward to new officers, to recruits, to our department in any way, I’m going to do it,” Officer Iurato said.

You can watch the full interview on the Gold Shields Youtube page HERE.