Incident: On April 1st at around 7:35pm, Officer Lombardi tried to pull over Abraham Rodriguez and companion Angel Raphael Toraz Morales due to an illegal turn. The car did not stop, and a chase began. Another nearby cop got out of his car to wave down Rodriguez, who continued driving towards him until he jumped out of the way. The car then crashed and Morales was quickly apprehended, but Rodriguez evaded police until he reached a dead-end alley. As Officer Lombardi followed, Rodriquez began walking back towards him. “I saw something white in his right hand and something shiny in his left,” Lombardi later told Chief Vaughan, and so he shot Rodriguez four times.¹ Witnesses later said Rodriguez’ hands were empty, and that Lombardi had taken a screwdriver out of Rodriguez’s belt and a radio out of his jacket pocket.

Arrest: Officer Lombardi—a former prison guard, nine-year police officer and two-year member of the HPD—was put on paid suspension two days after the shooting pending an investigation. On June 17th, 1970, Coroner Aronson found Lombardi criminally responsible based on evidence that he did not have reasonable cause to believe his life was in danger. Aronson reported that Rodriguez had been covering his face in self-protection when shot, and the shiny radio was in his pocket, not hand. Further, there were twelve feet between the men, enough space for Lombardi to get a closer look at what Rodriguez was holding before shooting. Attorney Sydney Schulman, who represented the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit Cintron v. Vaughan, was counsel for Abraham Rodriguez’ estate at the coroner’s hearings. Lombardi was fired on June 26th. He appealed his termination, and even asked that the request bypass the city government and go straight to the state. The appeal was rejected by the city personnel director, and Lombardi was arrested for manslaughter on July 15th. It was the first time a Connecticut police officer had been arrested for using their gun on duty.

Public Support: It was difficult to find unbiased jurors for the trial due to the high visibility of “the Lombardi Case” in the media and support for him expressed by public officials. All of the former officer’s legal fees were paid by the police union and the formidable Lombardi Defense Fund, which had been set up by a group called “Friends of Lombardi.” They ended up raising $8,000, the equivalent of $63,000 today. Various city buildings took up collections for the fund, including the HPD headquarters; officers were even collecting donations while out on duty. State senator Edward Marcus publicly announced his donation, and later defended it during a debate when pressed on the appropriateness of intervening in an ongoing trial. The defense campaign extended far beyond the city as well: residents of Durham and Farmington were collecting donations, the Wethersfield Fire Department and Manchester Police Union gave money, and the American Legion expressed support. Lombardi’s father, Pasquale, distributed over 3,000 bumper stickers and hundreds of posters in support of the cause. City Manager Elisha Freedman ordered police to remove the stickers from department vehicles. One elderly woman reportedly gave two dollars from her social security check, so intense was Lombardi’s martyrdom in the eyes of many white Hartford residents.  

Trial: Lombardi and Police Union lawyer Joseph Fazzano asked for a speedy trial, which was granted. Fazzano brought in medical testimony that Rodriguez’s arm had indeed been at his side when shot, contradicting the coroner’s report that it had been covering his face. Fighting that point, Assistant State Attorney George D. Stoughton presented witness Hector Santiago who claimed he had seen Rodriguez with both arms raised. Corroborating the emptiness of Rodriguez’s hands at the time of his death, numerous witnesses over the course of the inquiry testified that they had seen Lombardi take the screwdriver and radio out of Rodriguez’s pockets, later putting them into police custody as evidence. Stoughton also argued that Lombardi should not have been fearing for his life when many other police officers had been close by. Fazzano’s closing argument in defense of Lombardi went as follows: “If it takes you five minutes to decide this case, that’s 100 times longer than six seconds. Mr. Lombardi had to make his decision the night of April 1st.”² As the jury deliberated, their chambers were guarded by plainclothes police officers and state troopers due to a rumor that there would be a protest that day in support of Rodriguez. It took the superior court jury fifty seven minutes of deliberation to decide to acquit Lombardi, just two weeks after his arrest. 

Community Response: After Lombardi announced that he would not attempt reinstatement with the HPD, an organization called SAFE (Safety Always for Everyone) was formed around the goal of getting Lombardi hired by another Connecticut police department. Many figures in Hartford’s Puerto Rican community, of which Rodriguez was part, called out the unusual speed with which the case went to trial when many other presumably innocent people were stuck in jail. They also critiqued the “prejudicial publicity” that surely swayed the trial.³ Months later, in December of 1970, the People’s Liberation Party—a “militant group” of young Puerto Rican activists—set up a community center in the basement of South Park Methodist Church named the Abraham Rodriguez Memorial Center.⁴ 

Civil disturbances had already begun the night before Lombardi’s acquittal, and local tensions only increased after it was announced; the police ended up shooting twenty three people the night of July 29th, one of whom was killed. This was the context in which Efrain Gonzalez was shot just two days later (see below, Efrain Gonzalez). Local leaders made statements criticizing the verdict, but also arguing that the “riots” were largely the result of poor conditions and maltreatment in the North End, the Lombardi case serving only as an extra spark. Reverend Edward E. Goode, the first Vice President of the local NAACP and Cintron plaintiff, compared the disturbances and curfew to plantation life and pointed out that the rebellious and enslaved would burn their own homes rather than their enslavers’. Goode reminded the public of the city’s broken commitments on housing programs, improving educational facilities, and strengthening police guidelines on use of firearms. “There is no commitment to human values in this town. The city is at war,” Goode said. “Twenty three persons are shot and most people ignore it until it hits them. The children sense their oppression and pick up a rock.” ⁵

Abraham Rodriguez/“Lombardi Case” Newspaper Coverage

• April 2, 1970: HC “Youth Fatally Shot Fleeing Policeman: Shooting Is Third In Month” 
• April 4, 1970: HC, “Policeman Faces Probe Over Shooting of Youth: Violation Of Rules At Issue” 
• April 5, 1970: HC, “Shooting Probe Committee Appointed: Policemen Hear Call To Resist Anger Voiced At Meeting” 
• April 8, 1970: HC “Priests, Nuns Back Probe of Shootings” 
• May 10, 1970: HC “Victim’s Hands Empty?”
• May 29, 1970: HC “Suspended Policeman Plans To Submit Appeal”
• June 18, 1970: HC “Policeman Found Wrong In Shooting of Youth”
• June 19, 1970: HC, “Suspension Retained Until Hearing Ends” 
• June 25, 1970: HC, “Action in Lombardi Case To Be Decided Friday” 
• July 1, 1970: HC “Policeman Who Was Fired Files for Reinstatement”
• July 3, 1970: HC “Fund Started To Aid Fired City Policeman” 
• July 11, 1970: HC “Ousted Policeman Seeks Direct Appeal To State”
• July 14, 1970; HC “Policeman Loses Reinstatement Bid” 
• July 16, 1970: HC “State Arrests Policeman For Killing in City Alley: First Time A Lawman So Charged”
• July 17, 1970: HC “Campaign Launched To Defend Policeman”
• July 18, 1970: HC “Legion Delegates Join Lombardi Backers”
• July 21, 1970: HC “Lombardi Appeal Fund Is Immediate Success”
• July 22, 1970: HC “Lombardi Asks for Quick Trial”
• July 23, 1970: HC “5 Jurors Seated as Lombardi Trial Opens” 
• July 24, 1970: HC “Lombardi Witness Says 6 Shots Fired in Chase: Defendant Claims He Fired Four”
• July 25, 1970: HC, “Witness Traces Lombardi Shot”
• July 28, 1970: HC “Witness Says Victim Gave Up”
• July 29, 1970: HC “Policeman’s Fate Rests With Jury: Lombardi Recounts Shooting”
• July 30, 1970: HC “Policeman Acquitted by Jury; Will Abandon 9-Year Career”
• July 30, 1970: HC “The Lombardi Verdict”
• August 1, 1970: HC “A Police Job for Lombardi New Organization’s Aim” 
• August 4, 1970: HC “Lombardi, Neglect Factors in Riots” 
• August 15, 1970: HC “Lombardi Fund Received Donations Over $8,000” 
• August 17, 1970: HC “Defense Fund Donation Defended in Debate” 
• December 16, 1970: HC “City Community Center Opened By People’s Liberation Party”