Police: Highway Workers’ Alarm at Gunshots Led to Arrest of 2 Darien Police Officers

The arrests of two Darien police officers resulted from a report of 11 gunshots heard after midnight by highway construction workers near the Exit 13, according to a state police arrest warrant application, now public, which provides many more details about the case than were initially released.

The application was made public by clerks at state Superior Court in Stamford, where Darien police officers Daniel Ehret and James Martin face charges of reckless endangerment, breach of peace and unlawful discharge of firearms after an Aug. 1 incident on Wakeman Road.

Officers Martin and Ehret spoke to a Darien police sergeant who arrived at the scene, but both officers declined to provide a statement to the state police detective who arrived later, according to the warrant. The detective and the police sergeant both reported smelling alcohol on Ehret and Martin.

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See also:

• Two Darien Police Officers Charged by State Police in Shooting Incident
• After Arrest of Two Darien Police Officers, Chief Says Alleged Conduct ‘Intolerable’

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Martin hired Attorney Michael Fitzpatrick of Bridgeport to represent him, and Martin’s court date has been changed to Thursday, according to his court file. Ehret’s court file did not indicate that he’d hired a lawyer or had changed his court date from Monday, Oct. 19.

Here’s the account (consisting of accusations not proven in court) given in the arrest warrant application (a sworn affidavit) of state police Detective Jeffrey Morgan of the Central District Major Crime Unit:

At 12:36 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1, an inspector for Walsh Construction who was with a highway crew working at the entrance ramp to the northbound-traffic lanes at Exit 13 reported hearing about 11 gunshots coming from the residential neighborhood on the other side of the wooden highway sound barrier.

In an affidavit quoted in the arrest warrant application, the inspector said, “I was concerned about the safety of myself and the people working in my crew, as well as the vehicles passing through the construction zone.”

A state police trooper working on the site went to Wakeman Road, and Darien police officers also went there. The trooper said he saw two male figures in the driveway of a house on Wakeman Road that was later identified as police Officer James Martin’s home. The two were later identified as Martin and Ehret.

The trooper passed the driveway, then turned around and entered it as Darien police officers drove up. They told the trooper that the home was owned by Martin, a member of their police force and currently off-duty.

Darien Police Sgt. Mark Cirillo arrived on the scene and spoke with Martin at the front door of his home. Martin first said he had let off some fireworks. Later in the interview, he said, “We thought it would be fun to shoot at my vehicle.” (The quotation is in the arrest warrant application.) Cirillo smelled alcohol coming from Martin.

Cirillo also smelled alcohol on Ehret when the sergeant spoke with that officer. Both Martin and Ehret said the gun that was fired was in Ehret’s vehicle. Cirillo “notified the state attorney of the incident and the CSP [Connecticut State Police] Central District Major Crime Squad (CDMCS) was requested to initiate an investigation.”

At 5:30 a.m., state police from the squad arrived at the scene.

Examining a green Jeep Cherokee that belonged to Martin, they found 12 bullet holes along the length of the passenger side of the Jeep, and they found a 13th later, under the trim of the front passenger door. Thirteen spent shell casings were found near the vehicle.

Police concluded that the gun was shot from near the corner of the garage at a spot about 10 feet from the Jeep and toward the highway. In between the Jeep and the highway was an “elevated dirt embankment” between 3 and 12 feet high and the wooden highway sound barrier, 10 to 15 feet high and 5 to 7 inches thick and more than 70 feet away.

It didn’t appear that the gun was shot in the direction of any homes in the neighborhood. The home nearest to the gunshots (besides Martin’s home) was vacant at the time (and 280 feet away), and Martin’s family was away, as well. No one else was in the home, Darien police told state police investigators.

Both Martin and Ehret, according to Morgan’s arrest warrant application, “declined to give statements [to the state police detective, Morgan] regarding this incident and had refused to submit to urine testing. […] Officer Martin and Officer Ehret had spoken with a union representative of the Darien Police Department prior to CDMCS’s [Central District Major Crime Squad’s] arrival.”

Exactly five hours after the incident was first reported, at 5:36 a.m., Morgan spoke with Ehret, who declined to provide a statement. The detective smelled alcohol on him. At 5:57 a.m., the detective spoke with Martin, who also declined to give a statement, and Morgan also smelled alcohol on him.

The state forensics lab later refused to accept gunshot residue tests from the hands of the two officers because of the length of time that had elapsed between the reported firing of the gun and the tests.

With Ehret’s permission, state police looked in his sport utility vehicle, which was parked in the driveway, and found three guns and two six-round magazines, both empty. The magazines each had the capacity to hold six bullets, and Morgan noted that police commonly have one round of ammunition in a gun. [That might help explain why the number of bullets were shot at the vehicle was 13.]

The shot-up Jeep was towed by a flatbed wrecker to State Police Troop I in Bethany. Bullets recovered from the vehicle were consistent with the “.380 auto expended shell casings” found at the scene and with a Smith & Wesson M&P Bodyguard .380 pistol found in Ehret’s SUV.

Seven of the bullets that struck the Jeep were fired in a downward direction, according to the arrest warrant application, which didn’t mention what directions the other five bullets were fired in or whether the directions for those bullets were known.