Officer Frank Chiafari feared for his life as he faced a wild animal – an out-of-control “monster” that came surging toward him.
He had been called to a horrific scene in North Stamford last year after a frenzied chimpanzee had mauled a 56-year-old woman and left her battling for her life on the ground.
Chiafari pulled up in his police car and was attempting to help the woman when Travis the Chimp grabbed onto the unlocked door of his patrol car. The door had been unlocked so that Chiafari could help the victim, Charla Nash, who had been blinded in the attack by the powerful chimpanzee who had clawed at her face.
Now, the chimp had pulled the car door open and was facing Chiafari at close range.
He was suddenly facing “a monster” who was 200 pounds “with fangs and blood all over his hands and face from just eating this poor woman, in a frenzy, banging on my car – knocking the rearview mirror off like butter,” Chiafari said.
“The thing touched me. It came in my car, and I felt him brush against me,” Chiafari told reporters Thursday at the state Capitol complex in Hartford. “With a snarl, he was saying, ‘You’re next.’ Thankfully, I got the gun out of the holster and shot.”
Chiafari fired four times, forcing the chimp to retreat from the police car and eventually die on the property of its owner, 71-year-old Sandra Herold.
After maintaining a public silence for more than a year, Chiafari is speaking now to support changes in the state’s workers compensation laws. Chiafari was denied workers compensation because he shot and killed an animal, not a human being.
As such, Chiafari and other Stamford police officers traveled to Hartford Thursday to testify in front of the legislature’s labor committee on a bill filed by state Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford. Chiafari was praised for his courage by both Democrats and Republicans on the committee, and he answered questions along with the Stamford police union president, Sgt. Joseph Kennedy.
The Stamford officers declined to show any pictures publicly of the injuries that Nash suffered that day, saying the scene was too horrific. But they said they would show the pictures to legislators in private if they wanted to see what Chiafari saw on that day.
What he saw prompted Chiafari to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, causing nightmares, flashbacks, and depression.
“To come to a scene and you see a fellow human being ripped apart, I feel for that,” he said after the public hearing. “I see this person scalped. I don’t want to get into the gory things. There were fingers ripped off and everything. Yeah, it’s going to get to you. I’ve been a cop for 25 years. I’ve had little kids killed, but I’ve dealt with it. I’m pretty sensitive – more than most cops, probably. But I deal with it – when I’ve had those stressful calls.”
Like many police officers and city officials, Chiafari knew Travis in the city of Stamford.
For years, Travis was essentially a local celebrity – even if he was not well known outside the confines of the city. Chiafari had known the animal for at least 13 of its 15 years, adding, “I used to play with the thing years ago.”
The testimony was highly unusual for Chiafari, who has maintained a very low profile since the incident on February 16, 2009 on Rock Rimmon Road in an upscale area north of the Merritt Parkway.
“This is the first public appearance that Officer Chiafari is going to make,” said Christopher Licata, a former press aide for the state House Democrats who now works for Butler Associates Public Relations, which represents the police union. “He’s really tried to stay out of the public eye.”
The police union president told Capitol Watch on Thursday afternoon that Chiafari would probably never have told the full story if not for his desire to speak out about the pending legislation. For the past year, Chiafari has never told the full story publicly. As such, even some members of the Stamford police department do not know the full story, Kennedy said.
“He’s not someone who seeks the limelight,” Kennedy said of Chiafari. “The only reason he’s doing it is he doesn’t think it’s fair” for an officer to be denied workers compensation for shooting an animal when the officer’s life is threatened.
From the beginning, the police union has been involved in Chiafari’s case.
“I went to the chief of police,” Kennedy said Thursday. “I spoke to the chief about the whole situation. We both approached the city on paying the doctor’s bills. They decided to tell Frankie he had to go to a different doctor because the one he was going to was too expensive.”
“We’re pretty positive on it,” Kennedy said of the legislation. “When the incident first happened, we encourage the officers to file a workers comp form. Frank had filed, and it was denied in five days. Frank felt the need to seek out mental health help. This started right away.”
The legislation does not, for example, cover the case of an officer who must shoot a deer who has suffered a broken leg.
“We’re not saying a rabid raccoon – that is not what we’re talking about,” Kennedy said. “We’re talking about a wild animal who puts you in danger. He was put into the same situation as Charla Nash.”