A Stamford, Connecticut man, who engaged in an intense standoff with law enforcement last week, fired at armored Bearcat vehicles, destroyed multiple police drones, and wore a military-style shirt displaying a Nazi emblem, according to a statement from the state inspector general’s office on Tuesday.
These revelations were part of a preliminary report issued by Inspector General Eliot Prescott concerning the tragic events of December 2. During the standoff, police exchanged gunfire with 63-year-old Jed Parkington throughout the afternoon until he ultimately took his own life. An autopsy later confirmed that Parkington had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
A second, decomposing body responders found while canvassing the house for explosives after the siege turned out to be a homicide victim who had died of “blunt impact injuries of head and torso with gagging,” the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told police, according to the report. The remains had not been identified as of Tuesday. Neighbors told ABC News the couple occasionally rented rooms out.
The incident began around 9 a.m. when a Connecticut State Marshal arrived to serve a foreclosure eviction notice. The first contact was with Parkington’s wife, Carmen, who was outside with her dog. As they approached the back door, Parkington confronted them.
“Take her someplace safe,” Parkington instructed, ushering his wife outside. “This is not going to end well.”
Wearing a utility belt that appeared laden with explosive devices, Parkington prompted the marshal to call for backup. Officers from the Stamford Police Department responded, but were initially unable to communicate with Parkington. The department then deployed its hostage negotiation and special response teams.
Although Parkington engaged in a phone conversation with a negotiator while barricaded on the second floor, he steadfastly refused to exit the residence.
“Yeah, I got no place to go,” he said, according to audio released with the report. His father, a WWII vet, had told him stories about “how to defend a house,” he said, adding of his father during the war, “They gave him a lot of cigarettes and stuff, and guess what? Lung cancer.”
He also decried the “money racket” of war, whose orchestrators are “using people as pawns.”
Parkington said he and his wife had been seeking housing for three years to no avail and that he had lived in this house since 2005.
“See, how can they throw people out if they don’t have any place to put them except a shelter?” Parkington asked. “Treating people like garbage.”
Connecticut Office of Inspector General
A screenshot
taken from a police drone video shows Jed Parkington’s barricaded upstairs window. (Connecticut Office of Inspector General)
At 12:34 p.m., special response team members arrived in two Bearcat armored vehicles and told Parkington via megaphone to come out with his hands up because he was under arrest. His reply was a barrage of gunfire. Footage from inside the vehicles caught the sound of bullets clanging against the trucks. Attempts to end the standoff with nonlethal flash bangs got the same response.
“Parkington again fired on police officers outside and, on several occasions, shot down drones … to ascertain Parkington’s location in the house,” the inspector general’s report said.
Officers fired back but didn’t hit him. At 3:30 p.m., they heard “a single shot” from inside the house and flew a drone inside.
“Parkington was observed with a single gunshot wound to the head and appeared to be deceased,” the report said. “The drone footage also revealed the presence of grenades, a pipe bomb and other improvised explosive devices.”
