WATCH: Officer-Involved Shooting! Hammer-Wielding Suspect Attacks Female Detective

in Current Events, Defensive Use of Firearms, This Week

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Early on August 12, 2020, at around 6:33 a.m., Middletown Police were summoned to a disturbance at the 100 block of Liberty Street that ultimately ended up as an officer-involved shooting.

Witnesses recounted a man, later identified as 52-year-old Winston Tate, causing a ruckus by yelling and breaking glass.

Detective Karli Travis, the head of the Middletown Police Cadet Program and a member of the patrol division, was first on the scene.

Tate, a convicted felon since ’95, immediately confronted Detective Travis, wielding a claw hammer.

After striking the detective, the two ended up on the ground, leading to a violent altercation in which Tate hit Travis with the claw hammer a total of four times.

In the ensuing chaos, Detective Travis was compelled to discharge her weapon in self-defense. Tate was hit several times.

Shortly after, Tate, now wounded, was secured and rushed to a local hospital to treat his gunshot injuries.

SEE ALSO: LAPD Releases Video of Officer-Involved Shooting That Left 14-Year-Old Bystander Dead 

He remains hospitalized under vigilant police watch, with an arrest warrant already served. Detective Travis also received medical attention at a nearby hospital and is on the mend.

Police Chief Erik Costa shared that Travis is currently at home resting, and the entire police department is rallying behind her, wishing her a quick recovery.

Chief Costa praised Detective Travis, calling her response an “extreme act of heroism,” according to NBC Connecticut.

During a news conference held on Tuesday, Mayor Ben Florsheim provided further insights into the situation.

He disclosed that a video capturing the altercation serves as “evidence of an officer taking lifesaving steps for her own sake and the community’s sake.”

Body cam footage obtained from officer Travis. (Photo: Middletown Police Dept.)

Update on the Incident:

Winston Tate continues to recover in the hospital while in police custody. Upon his anticipated discharge on August 15, 2023, he will be arraigned at Middlesex Superior Court.

Tate faces a series of charges, including Attempted First-Degree Assault, Second-Degree Assault, Assault on Public Safety Personnel, and Interference with Police.

A bail amount of $850,000 has been set for him.

Tate was incarcerated for assaulting police officers in both 2017 and 2020. He spent a year in jail for the incident in 2017 and was on probation for the 2020 offense when he is believed to have attacked Travis, reports WGEM.

“It is our hope that this time finally after attempting to murder a police officer, he will suffer the consequences that he so rightfully deserves,” said Middletown’s police union in a statement.

Not Enough Gun?

Some on social media are claiming the detective did not have enough “stopping power.” What are your thoughts?

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  • Steven Marcus August 21, 2023, 10:48 am

    Stopping power, shmopping power. This Detective Tate didn’t spend enough time at the range doing combat shooting under stress, which very few police officers ever do.

    The very fact that she KNEW (or MUST have known) that this scumbag had a long rapsheet for assaulting officers means that her hand should have been already on her gun as soon as the guy started to run towards her.
    I’m also gonna guess that she did not crouch or use two hands, two things which would have made her shots hit where they should have….
    I’m glad she’s fine and that this scumbag is going away, hopefully for a longgggggggggggggggggggggggggg time.

  • Brad F August 21, 2023, 8:22 am

    God bless the detective; she went through a very traumatic experience. The incident is a frightening lesson for anyone who carries a gun legally re: (a) how quickly the perp closed the distance between himself and the officer; and (b) the perp’s lack of response to getting shot. Do we know where the shots landed? Any of them center mass? Not trying to second-guess the offercer; she had almost no time to react and she managed to land one or more shots.

  • Tony Winters August 19, 2023, 7:24 pm

    So will this be the New Standard for Police Departments, an Officer must wait until the Criminal has caused bodily before they are allowed to shoot??? How many more Police Officers will die while the Criminals go free??? I watched this video a number of times, the Criminal was given many chances to drop the hammer and back off. The Police Officer was well within her rights to shoot to kill and should have done so.

  • Chief August 19, 2023, 1:47 pm

    The fact that you clowns are arguing over 9mm vs 45 AGAIN, is so annoying.

    On another note, too bad this guy is still sucking in oxygen.

  • Barnacle Bill August 19, 2023, 12:39 pm

    I’m pleased the peace officer is recovering; but she either needs more target practice or a larger caliber firearm AND she should never had let this guy get so close to her! I do not know if she missed hitting him or possibly he was self-medicated and the wounds did not cause him to cease his attack!

  • Zeke August 19, 2023, 9:11 am

    So this guy had at least 2 previous offenses yet he was out on the streets. He should have been in jail.

    This is a failure of the justice system.

  • JD August 18, 2023, 7:34 pm

    None of us were there. I thought the detective did well speaking politely and asking the perp to drop the hammer. Trying to deescalate. She was at a distance and thought herself safe. I wonder if she had participated in Tueller Drill training? I had that once as a civilian during a defensive gun use course. Eyeopener how fast distance can be covered before you can get off even one shot. and maybe not precisely aimed at that. She was back pedaling and giving herself distance and some extra time but I think maybe she could have had her firearm at her side a second or two before he started charging her. Commenters who stand still and shoot at paper targets for accuracy should try shooting while moving. Drawing from your holster and shooting in one second.
    Getting off the “X”. That will pretty much be the end of hitting the 10 ring.

  • Bob Gee August 18, 2023, 5:57 pm

    This encounter is so typical of so many police confrontations. 9mm’s DO seem to be effective enough for many(most?) of the world’s LE agencies and militaries. I’ve never been a tremendous fan of “the bigger the caliber, the better” and shot placement is still the gold standard for assured effectiveness. HOWEVER, when we roll up on a scene we can be faced with making an instantaneous assessment and a split second decision to draw/present/take careful aim/and fire. Seldom is that luxury afforded us! Let’s be real – when faced with an armed subject charging at you with the intent of doing you great bodily harm, let’s face it, it’s usually rip it, spray and pray. My big question in this instance is what kind/type of ammunition her department issues/arms her with, or allows her to carry. I’m guessing it’s not hollow-point. Too many department Chiefs and administrators shy away from the (shudder) dum-dum ammo.

  • feduptohere August 18, 2023, 5:32 pm

    Did it blow his lung clear out?

  • Bob W August 18, 2023, 5:26 pm

    Maybe start carrying a 45 with HP ammo. If that don’t stop the animal, nothing will. Too bad he survived. You know he will do it again

  • LouisianaMan August 18, 2023, 3:02 pm

    Maybe I missed it, but I read & saw nothing whatsoever on bullet placement(s), which is where any discussion of terminal effectiveness must start.

  • Brian G. Lowery August 18, 2023, 2:50 pm

    Without knowing how many shots actually hit the suspect, where and with what kind of ammunition we can’t make any kind of determination on anything. My personal opinion is that given the “damned if they do and damned if they don’t” atmosphere of LEO these days the officer hesitated too long before drawing her weapon to engage the suspect due to fear of firing & prosecution and it nearly cost her life.

  • al kohall August 18, 2023, 1:43 pm

    a 12 ga would have handled the situation.

  • Hondo August 18, 2023, 1:42 pm

    Center mass for crying out loud, then double tap this loser.

  • bbcm August 18, 2023, 1:40 pm

    this is what 12 ga is meant for

  • Sean August 18, 2023, 1:04 pm

    No background check, no serial number on the hammer, no age restriction, available everywhere. We need new hammer safety laws.

    • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment August 22, 2023, 9:21 am

      and nails should be in packs no larger then quantity of 6

  • Sean August 18, 2023, 1:01 pm

    So, even though he was not aloud to have a gun, he was still able to hurt someone? Interesting.

    • Sean August 18, 2023, 1:02 pm

      Spell check, allowed.

    • Bob W August 18, 2023, 5:28 pm

      The cop is still alive!

  • El Zorro August 18, 2023, 12:52 pm

    RE: “Not enough stopping power…” Apparently the officer’s gun was a 9mm. That should be sufficient, provided that the weapon is deployed soon enough and the shots are placed correctly i.e. Mozambique Drill. However, the officer waited way too long draw her gun, rendering shot placement much more difficult. Apparently, she hesitated, given that shooting one of these lesser-evolved low intelligence throwbacks is all but verboten these days. (Why is that?)

    The above being said, I won’t carry anything less than .45 ACP from now on!

  • Ocean Dragon August 18, 2023, 11:34 am

    We are always going to come across this type of hammer wielding crazy in our community. My question is “was this officer trained and ready for this type of situation?” She fired quite a few shots at close distance, most of which didn’t hit the target. Shot placement is critical to protect ones own life as well as others. Those shots had to land somewhere.

  • Giovanni August 18, 2023, 11:03 am

    With FMJ bullets, a .45 presents a frontal surface as big as or bigger than an expanded 9mm. But many police jurisdictions use non-expanding 9mm bullets that zip through the perp without creating a temporary cavity and, therefore, have less stopping power.

  • Anthony August 18, 2023, 10:50 am

    I would have distracted him and thrown a nail on the ground

  • Kane August 17, 2023, 10:58 pm

    Sue Tate, sue his friends if any, sue his family…

  • paul I'll call you what I want/1st Amendment August 17, 2023, 5:34 pm

    “tate was rushed to the hospital”……..should have drove slower!

    • Anthony August 18, 2023, 10:45 am

      Yep, should have had a flat on the way to the hospital to rid this planet of him and scum like him. They offer nothing but pain and grief to society.

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