The latest Board of Police Commissioners meeting, held over Zoom on July 14. In an attempt to make an arrest for a downtown shooting on Halloween that left three victims injured and one dead, New Haven police sent a SWAT team to Derby and broke down the wrong man’s door and handcuffed him befo re realizing their mistake. The tenant, who wasn’t the intended target of the warrant, allegedly told police it was the second time he had been “swatted” — first by Derby cops, and now by New Haven. New Haven Police Department Sgt. (now Lt.) Chris Alvarado described the incident to the city’s Board of Police Commissioners at their July 14 meeting, which was conducted over Zoom. Alvarado, who recently took over as the head of Internal Affairs (IA), presented Sgt. Jonathan Caron’s investigation, dated April 2, into a complaint submitted by the tenant in November 2025. According to the IA report obtained by the Independent, which contains some redactions, Caron found that the resident had been living in an illegally converted unit. He determined that Lt. Ryan Przybylski, who commanded the SWAT team and was the subject of the investigation, “took extraordinary measures to prepare and execute this search warrant” and that there was no misconduct on his part. Przybylski was ultimately exonerated. Specifically, Przybylski was cleared of potential violations of NHPD General Orders 1.03-Rules of Conduct and 8.09-Warrants. The arrest was related to a Halloween shooting in the early hours of Nov. 1, as thousands of people descended on downtown New Haven. At around 2:34 a.m., police responded to Church Street and Center Street after receiving reports of gunfire. Three victims located on-site were transferred to Yale New Haven Hospital. Two received treatment for non-life-threatening injuries and the third victim, 18-year-old Alexa Acevedo of Norwich, was announced dead at the hospital. A fourth victim arrived at the hospital later, by car, for treatment for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Police determined Acevedo and a friend of hers who was also shot were in no way connected to the alleged shooters who police wound up arresting. Police believe that the shooting stemmed from beef between a 19-year-old from East Hartford, who allegedly fired the first shot, and a group of eight young people in Derby — two of whom pulled out guns and fired in response. One of those two alleged shooters, a 17-year-old from Derby, was arrested in December for firing the shot that killed Acevedo. Det. Brandon Way led the investigation and ultimately identified a suspect in the investigation as living at a Derby address. Police received a search and seizure warrant for the address. While police didn’t wind up arresting the 17-year-old suspect until Dec. 18, on Nov. 14, the New Haven Police Department (NHPD) carried out a SWAT operation at the identified Derby address for the arrest of a suspect in the Halloween shooting. The warrant was for apartment “A”. The SWAT team accidentally broke the door to apartment “B” in the early hours of the morning. The resident of apartment B — whose name, address, and date of birth are redacted from the IA report — was handcuffed by police until officers confirmed that he was not their suspect and that he lived in a separate unit. On Nov. 26, the resident whose door was incorrectly breached filed a civilian complaint, which was obtained by the Independent, against the NHPD. He said that the incident occurred at around 5 a.m. on Nov. 14. “Swatted by New Haven PD are the circumstances that prompt my complaint,” he wrote. “Wrong apartment and suspect.” In 2023, NHPD officers accidentally raided the wrong East Street apartment when looking for the neighbor of a resident named Stacey Wezenter. A federal judge ruled against Wezenter in March of this year after she filed a federal lawsuit against the city and officers related to the botched raid. Unlike in the case of Wezenter, where police broke down her door and pointed guns in her direction, police in this instance do not appear to have entered the complainant’s home. “How? This Is Impossible” SWAT Commander Lt. Przybylski told investigator Sgt. Caron that he had been notified that the warrant execution would be a SWAT operation two days before, on Nov. 12. Przybylski, who has been a member of the NHPD SWAT Team since 2010, represented himself without police union representation in an interview with Det. Daniel Conklin and Caron on Jan. 23. “Lieutenant Przybylski stated that this operation posed additional challenges because it was outside the City of New Haven and occurred in Derby, an area unfamiliar to the SWAT Team,” Caron wrote. There was some body-worn camera footage from a previous incident at the same address, where a man reported having firearms stored in a safe, but no identifying information was recorded about him. The footage also only provided a partial interior layout of the residence, Przybylski said. In taking additional steps ahead of the investigation, Przybylski said, he attempted to identify whether children resided at the location, and planned under the assumptionthat firearms could still be present. He also reviewed the structure of the property, and stated that while he could determine the overall square footage, “he was unable to confirm the exact manner in which the entry doors led into the separate apartments.” Przybylski coordinated with the Derby Police Department (DPD) and arranged for the DPD to serve as a staging area. Two Derby officers also stood by in support capacity but weren’t part of executing the warrant. The lieutenant gave two PowerPoint presentations as briefings in the hours leading up to the SWAT operation, including in New Haven and in Derby. “He acknowledged that the steep terrain behind the residence was not fully appreciated until the operation was underway,” Caron wrote. After reviewing previous body-worn camera footage, the SWAT team operated under the assumption that there was dead space in the house, according to Przybylski. Instead, when they breached the back door, they found out that it led directly into apartment B. Caron reviewed body-worn camera footage from the Nov. 14 incident worn by Sgts. Robert Stratton and Jeffrey Rivellini, who were part of a rear entry team along with Det. Kyle Malloy. “They walked down the sidewalk in complete darkness with other members of the SWAT team,” he wrote. “The property is poorly lit, and the officers did not use their lights as they approached, concealing their approach.” Caron wrote that because of the darkness, he saw no indication that the staircase officers were climbing indicated they led to apartment B. He said the lighting was so dark he couldn’t see the door at the top. The description of the breaching of the door is largely redacted. Officers instructed anyone inside to come out with hands up. The resident stepped outside in his underwear and told officers that his apartment was separate from the first-floor one. Officers placed him in handcuffs. “Sergeant Stratton radioed that they had one white male who claimed he lived upstairs alone with his cat, and this was a different unit from the one downstairs,” Caron wrote. The resident told officers this was the second time he had been “swatted” while living at that address, first by the Derby police, “and the officers were heard saying, ‘What the fuck.'” Officers asked the resident how they could get to the first floor. He said there was another door below. “I then heard Lieutenant Przybylski saying, ‘How? This is impossible,’ as he approached,” Caron wrote. Then the resident began coughing. One detective asked him if he needed medical help. The resident told him that he needed a “burial plot” and said he had COPD. The resident explained that his unit was separate from the one they were looking for. It used to be the third floor of a house but the stairs were blocked off. Przybylski then uncuffed the resident and confirmed that there was no access from his apartment to the one below. The officers told him to go back inside and that they would speak to him again after securing the first-floor team. They didn’t enter the apartment. Przybylski said he collected the resident’s contact information and his landlord’s as well, provided his own contact details, and advised that a reimbursement form would be sent for damage to the door. “Lieutenant Przybylski stated that the [REDACTION] of Apartment B was not intentional and was not knowingly conducted outside the scope of the search warrant,” Caron wrote. “He affirmed that all standard planning steps were followed and that additional measures were taken due to the operation being out of jurisdiction.” Caron interviewed other members of the SWAT team, who corroborated Przybylski’s characterization of events. During the investigation, Caron and Conklin visited Derby City Hall and spoke with the Planning and Zoning Department. They learned that the residence was an illegal dwelling. “We were informed that this dwelling was zoned for 2 residences, but their records showed no evidence that it had ever been converted into 2 apartments,” Caron wrote. “According to their plans and layouts for the dwelling, the rear staircase leading to apartment B was located on the opposite side of the house. Based on publicly available tax records, this dwelling shows that only one person pays property taxes through an LLC, not individual residents.” Because of Caron’s findings, Derby police making a similar mistake in the past, the resident allegedly informing Caron that the Postal Office has trouble finding his unit, and the fact that Przybylski had met the necessary criteria prior to executing the search warrant, Caron ultimately determined that Przybylski didn’t have malicious intent or breach the resident’s door knowing it was outside the scope of the search warrant. Police Commission weighs in Current head of IA Alvarado presented a summary and the findings of Caron’s investigation to members of the Board of Police Commissioners at their July 14 meeting. The investigation, he said, was closed and Przybylski was exonerated. “It sounds like the investigation was incredibly thorough,” said Commissioner Tracey Meares. What was the follow-up with the resident? Alvarado said that the resident received an explanation from police and was referred to the city’s corporation counsel for the damages to the door. “Did someone go through and explain to him why this happened?” Meares asked. Capt. Mike Fumiatti said that officers did explain to the resident. “We spent a lot of time reviewing this case,” he said. “What happens is it’s early morning hours. SWAT team doesn’t want to activate their lights. They’ve done extensive research. They couldn’t fly a drone to get the actual, the more in-depth layout. They do a briefing with Derby officers, who are the agency that have conducted the wrongful hit before.” “Officers never make entry, and they explain to him, and he understands too,” Fumiatti concluded. “Basically, this has happened before, and so it is a copacetic encounter with the police.” “Given that this is basically an illegal division, do we know if this is going to be a situation where this guy is going to lose his apartment?” Meares asked. “Because now, you know, everyone is alerted to the fact that the landlord is the one who’s basically cheating.” Fumiatti said he wasn’t aware of any formal notification that was made to the Town of Derby about the unit. “So I would say probably not, to be honest,” he said. “It would be really sad if at the end of this whole thing, after having his door breached twice, he ends up not being able to have a home,” Meares said. 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