NORTH HAVEN — A 38-year-old man was charged with allegedly sending messages to his estranged girlfriend , threatening to kill her and her family.
Vincent Terrone allegedly threatened the woman he was living with, sending her a text message that he would “go out and kill both (the woman’s) sisters (her) mother and (her) father ...,” according to photographic evidence of the text message police collected. He was charged with second-degree harassment .
He had been dating the woman for several months and they lived together in Hamden and were planning to move to the apartment in North Haven where police responded to a complaint of harassment and potential burglary.
When police arrived at the apartment, they found Terrone in his vehicle, where he had spent the night, the report said, since the woman with whom Terrone was living had changed the locks to the apartment. Terrone found he could access the basement and subsequently began removing things from the residence to his vehicle, according to the report.
While police were on scene, the estranged girlfriend was at the the North Haven Police Department to report threats against her family. In talking with police, the woman described Terrone as a heroin user, saying his drug use had increased over the past several months, according to the report. She had asked him to immediately leave and wanted no further contact with him, the report said.
A search on the judicial website revealed Terrone has several pending cases, including felony charges for risk of injury to a child, violation of a protective order and criminal violation of a restraining order. He has court appearances scheduled for March 23.
The same day Terrone was arrested, he was involved in an incident where Hamden Police Sgt. Michael Cirillo allegedly assaulted Terrone while on duty for Hamden police. Police were in the house’s basement with Terrone when the altercation happened where “Cirillo yelled at Terrone, grabbed him by his upper torso and threw him to the ground,” a report said. “Cirillo continued to wrestle with Terrone and eventually placing Terrone into a head lock” while he yelled at Terrone about making threats to his family.
Cirillo was arrested for third-degree assault. He has a plea hearing scheduled for Jan. 18.
Watch the altercation captured by the officer’s Axon body camera here and watch the full video of the incident here. Warning: the videos of the arrest contain aggressive, explicit language.
Police subsequently learned the woman with whom Terrone was living had contacted a relative about the threatening messages and the person who received the call is related to Cirillo.
After the incident, North Haven firefighters and medics from AMR responded and Terrone was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital complaining of back pain.
At the hospital, police were advised Terrone was “unable to receive the Summons due to sobriety issues,” the report said, with police delivering the summons later that day. Terrone had told police he drank several beers that morning, according to a video of the arrest captured by an officer’s Axon body camera.
mdignan@hearstmediact.com