The fatal police shooting of Anthony Jose “Chulo” Vega Cruz after a traffic stop in Wethersfield is examined in Collision Course, a half-hour TV documentary that kicks off Connecticut Public’s new investigative journalism project.
Collision Course examines the dynamics at play that led the lives of two men — 18-year-old Vega Cruz and Officer Layau Eulizier Jr. — to collide on Wethersfield’s Silas Deane Highway on April 20, 2019.
In collaboration with Hartford filmmaker Pedro Bermudez, Collision Course features new, exclusive interviews that provide insight into Vega Cruz’s mindset leading up to the traffic stop. The documentary also includes reporting after Vega Cruz’s death and the Wethersfield community’s response to it. Collision Course refocuses attention on the Hartford suburb’s practice of heavily enforcing minor motor vehicle violations, such as tinted windows – and pulling over black and brown drivers at disproportionately higher rates when compared to whites.
- Click here for an audio feature about Chulo’s father by Vanessa de la Torre of Connecticut Public
- Click here for the documentary by Vanessa and her colleagues at Connecticut Public
