Connecticut
Slain Connecticut trooper Aaron Pelletier’s K-9 to retire, stay with partner’s family
The K-9 who served with the Connecticut State trooper who was killed in a hit-and-run last month is set to retire and live with his partner’s family,
Connecticut State Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier had worked alongside K-9 Roso — a German Shepard — for nearly three years before his death during a routine traffic stop on May 30, according to the Hartford Courant.
“The CSP K9 Unit anticipates an imminent retirement for K9 Roso, who will remain with the Pelletier Family,” the Connecticut State Police said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
Pelletier, 44, was working overtime on the traffic enforcement detail when he pulled over a driver not wearing a seatbelt on Interstate 84 in Southington at around 2:36 p.m.
As he was talking to the driver, a pickup truck entered the right shoulder and struck Pelletier, his cruiser and the stopped vehicle before fleeing down the road.
Pelletier was pronounced dead at the scene.
Roso was inside Pelletier’s cruiser at the time of the crash, but wasn’t seriously injured.
Pelletier and Roso graduated together at the Connecticut State Police Academy in December 2021, the outlet reported.
Alex Oyola-Sanchez, the driver of the pickup, was arrested several towns over on I-84 and charged with second-degree manslaughter, operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs and several other crimes.
Oyola-Sanchez’s lawyers entered a not-guilty plea during a court hearing Thursday, the case was continued to July 2.
In the wake of Pelletier’s death, and a show of support for the fallen trooper, Wethersfield town Council Member Rich Bailey (R) suggested the town raise the “thin blue line” flag over town hall.
The flag is traditionally flown to support police officers.
The Wethersfield Town Council, consisting of 6 democrats and 3 republicans, shot down the request claiming that the flag represents divisiveness and racism to some.
The council had already voted to fly the LGBTQ flag in honor of June’s Pride Month and ordered the flag — along with the American and Connecticut state flags — to be flown at half-mast after shooting down the request.
Pelletier’s wife flew her own “thin blue line” flag outside her home to honor her late husband on Friday, The Post reported.
Dominique Pelletier, 34, who shared two sons with her husband, had the flag poignantly flying half-staff outside the family’s home in Southington outside of Hartford even as she received threats for the symbolic gesture.
The widow gave a tearful tribute to her husband at the ceremony saying Pelletier wasn’t just her husband.
“You were my home. You were my heart. You were my safe place and my provider. My best friend. My secret keeper. My favorite gossiper,” Dominique said at the funeral last Wednesday.
“The light in our smiles will be forever dimmed and the thought of this world without that laugh seems unimaginable but has already become real,” she said. “I promise to keep you alive in our home, in our heart and in our boys’ memories forever. I love you, and I miss you.”
With Post wires
Connecticut
State police investigating suspicious incident in Burlington
BURLINGTON, Conn. (WFSB) – Connecticut State Police are investigating a suspicious incident at a residence on Case Road in Burlington.
Multiple state troopers and police vehicles were seen at the home conducting an investigation. A viewer reported seeing nine police cars and numerous troopers at the scene.
State police said there is no threat to the public at this time. The investigation is ongoing.
No additional details about the nature of the suspicious incident have been released.
Copyright 2026 WFSB. All rights reserved.
Connecticut
Ecuadorian national with manslaughter conviction sentenced for illegally reentering United States through Connecticut
NEW HAVEN, CT. (WFSB) – An Ecuadorian national with a manslaughter conviction was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for illegally reentering the United States through Connecticut after being deported.
40-year-old Darwin Francisco Quituizaca-Duchitanga was sentenced and had used the aliases Darwin Duchitanga-Quituizaca and Juan Mendez-Gutierrez.
U.S. Border Patrol first encountered Quituizaca in December 2003, when he used the alias Juan Mendez-Gutierrez and claimed to be a Mexican citizen. He was issued a voluntary return to Mexico.
Connecticut State Police arrested him in March 2018 on charges related to a fatal crash on I-91 in North Haven in March 2017. He was using the alias Darwin Duchitanga-Quituizaca at the time.
ICE arrested him on an administrative warrant in Meriden in August 2018 while he was awaiting trial in his state case. An immigration judge ordered his removal to Ecuador in September 2018, but he was transferred to state custody to face pending charges.
Quituizaca was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in January 2019 and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
After his release, ICE arrested him again on an administrative warrant in Meriden in August 2023. He was removed to Ecuador the next month.
ICE arrested Quituizaca again on a warrant in Meriden on June 28th, 2025, after he illegally reentered the United States. He pleaded guilty to unlawful reentry on July 30th.
He has been detained since his arrest. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the case.
The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat illegal immigration and transnational criminal organizations.
Copyright 2026 WFSB. All rights reserved.
Connecticut
Justice Department sues Connecticut and Arizona as part of effort to get voter data from the states
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Officials in Connecticut and Arizona are defending their decision to refuse a request by the U.S. Justice Department for detailed voter information, after their states became the latest to face federal lawsuits over the issue.
“Pound sand,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes posted on X, saying the release of the voter records would violate state and federal law.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced this week it was suing Connecticut and Arizona for failing to comply with its requests, bringing to 23 the number of states the department has sued to obtain the data. It also has filed suit against the District of Columbia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the department will “continue filing lawsuits to protect American elections,” saying accurate voter rolls are the ”foundation of election integrity.”
Secretaries of state and state attorneys general who have pushed back against the effort say it violates federal privacy law, which protects the sharing of individual data with the government, and would run afoul of their own state laws that restrict what voter information can be released publicly. Some of the data the Justice Department is seeking includes names, dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Other requests included basic questions about the procedures states use to comply with federal voting laws, while some have been more state-specific. They have referenced perceived inconsistencies from a survey from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Most of the lawsuits target states led by Democrats, who have said they have been unable to get a firm answer about why the Justice Department wants the information and how it plans to use it. Last fall, 10 Democratic secretaries of state sent a letter to the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security expressing concern after DHS said it had received voter data and would enter it into a federal program used to verify citizenship status.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, said his state had tried to “work cooperatively” with the Justice Department to understand the basis for its request for voters’ personal information.
“Rather than communicating productively with us, they rushed to sue,” Tong said Tuesday, after the lawsuit was filed.
Connecticut, he said, “takes its obligations under federal laws very seriously.” He pledged to “vigorously defend the state against this meritless and deeply disappointing lawsuit.”
Two Republican state senators in Connecticut said they welcomed the federal lawsuit. They said a recent absentee ballot scandal in the state’s largest city, Bridgeport, had made the state a “national punchline.”
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