Rally Held in New Haven for Teen Shot by Connecticut Police

by Davis Dunavin, WSHU.org, Jan. 23, 2020

Hundreds of people demonstrated outside New Haven City Hall on Tuesday and chanted “Justice for Mubarak!”

The rally, meant to honor 19-year-old Mubarak Soulemane, became a larger rally for justice in police shootings. News broke the day before that a third man had been shot by law enforcement in Connecticut in less than a month.

Kira Ortoleva, a close friend of Soulemane’s, organized the event. She says the timing of his death could not be more heartbreaking.

“He told everyone that 2020 was going to be the year where he made big moves in his life, where he focused on school, where he focused on his work and he helped his family,” Ortoleva says. “And he didn’t even get to make it to February.”

Connecticut State Trooper Brian North shot Soulemane on Wednesday, January 15, after a car chase on Interstate 95 near West Haven. State police released footage from North’s body camera that shows North fired seven times through a car window as Soulemane sat in the driver’s seat. Police said he was armed with a knife.

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