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Coalition for 'just' investment in Pittsfield criticizes police shooting report

Miguel Estrella was shot and killed by a police officer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on March 25, 2022.
Courtesy
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Dashine Moore
Miguel Estrella was shot and killed by a police officer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on March 25, 2022.

A coalition of groups calling for more transparency from Pittsfield police said the department's investigation of the shooting of Miguel Estrella is not an independent look at what happened.

The preliminary police investigation released this week found the shooting of the 22-year-old Estrella was in compliance with state law, the department's use of force guidelines — and was in response to an "imminent deadly threat."

The report did not include interviews with anyone outside of the police who witnessed the shooting. Nor did it include a transcript of the 911 calls for help.

Meg Bossong, an organizer with Invest in Pittsfield, said when police departments police themselves in an internal investigation — this report is the expected outcome.

"It attempts to make the argument that Miguel's death was not only unavoidable in this circumstance, but that it was somehow correct," Bossong said. "And what we are saying is that there are a range of policies, investments, protocols and choices that the city could be making that would have made Miguel's death preventable."

Bossong said what's needed is a mental health response separate from the police.

"He needed support. He needed to be connected to mental health resources in an accessible way before that ever happened," she said about Estrella's shooting.

The police report stated, "We strive for transparency to the extent permitted by statute, policy and best practices in order to build and maintain the trust of the citizens we protect."

The two police officers who responded to the call to help Estrella were place on administrative leave after the shooting. Now they are on "limited duty," officials said.

The police are expected to release their final report within weeks. A separate investigation by the Berkshire County District Attorney's office is still ongoing.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
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