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West Haven Slaying: Federal lawsuit filed against police; lawyer cites racism in mishandling of 911 calls

If Shengyl Rasim had not been Turkish, police personnel wouldn’t have “ignored and mock(ed)” her, responding with a “cavalier and dismissive attitude” that led to “probably the most preventable tragedy” he’s seen as a lawyer, the attorney for Rasim’s estate said Thursday.

Attorney Joel T. Faxon filed a federal lawsuit Thursday in the death of Rasim, the victim in last year’s Blohm Street murder-suicide. The suit, which names the Police Department, two dispatchers and two police officers as defendants, alleges negligence, recklessness and racial discrimination.

Key information about two 911 calls was not communicated to responding officers, a police internal affairs report found in August.

Rasim’s husband, Selami Ozdemir, 42, fatally shot her as she held their baby, while their 6-year-old son was asleep upstairs, then turned the gun on himself.

Rasim was killed after the third time in about 12 hours that Ozdemir had violated a protective order. The day before Rasim’s death, Ozdemir was arrested on domestic violence charges that included violation of a protective order. He posted bail and was released and forbidden from returning home.

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Rasim, 25, who spoke little English, struggled to make herself understood by dispatchers, including during a 911 call in which she said Ozdemir was outside her door, going “Boom, boom, boom.”

“The West Haven police didn’t care about protecting Shengyl and her children because she was Turkish,” Faxon said Thursday, adding that police personnel were dismissive of Rasim because of her race.

“The actions of West Haven were discriminatory, and if a Caucasian woman made the same call, no lawsuit would have been filed, no one would have been killed and there would be no orphans involved.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven, did not specify the monetary damages sought. Faxon said he considered Rasim’s to be a “multi-multimillion-dollar case.”