New London man shot multiple times by police faces new charges

The arrest on Thursday of a 42-year-old man who was shot multiple times by police during a confrontation in a New London hotel room last year sheds new light on the events leading up to the shooting. Christopher Nolan, who was being held at the Corrigan Correctional Center on charges unrelated to the Nov. 26 shooting, was served with a warrant in New London Superior Court on Thursday charging him with criminal possession of a firearm, unlawful discharge of a firearm, falsely reporting an incident and five counts of risk of injury to a minor. The charges relate to a Nov. 26 incident when police said Nolan fired a shot from the window of a room at the America's Best Value Inn at 380 Bayonet St. Police said Nolan had fired toward a man and a woman in the parking lot, apparently angered over the "hickey marks" on the woman's neck and jealous when he saw the woman with another man.Police responded to the America's Best Value Inn at 1:53 p.m. on Nov. 26 and then learned that Nolan had fled to the nearby Clarion Inn at 269 Frontage Road. By 2:40 p.m., police had converged on the Clarion Inn and found out which room Nolan was hiding in, the arrest warrant states. Police said a woman in the room agreed to allow police to enter but wanted time to gather five children on the bed. The woman told police Nolan would not leave. When police entered, Nolan was at the back of the room with a gun in his hand and appeared to be trying to escape through a rear window, police said. The woman who was in the room said Nolan said something like, "I'll shoot everybody in here," prior to being shot by police, the warrant states. "While holding the suspect at gunpoint, the suspect disobeyed officers' commands to show his hands," the warrant states. "As the incident escalated, officers could hear the suspect threatening that he would 'shoot,' at which time, officers shot at the suspect."The Office of the Inspector General has not yet released its determination of whether officers were justified in using deadly force. New London Superior Court Judge John Newson said on Thursday that the state's investigation had delayed filing of the new charges.The Office of Inspector general previously released body camera footage of the shooting.Police officers involved in shooting Nolan were previously identified as Joseph Nott, Annie Agnew and Seth Bolduc. Police said they found a handgun on the windowsill near where Nolan was standing. Nolan was treated for non-life threatening injuries. In an interview with police at Yale New Haven Hospital, police said Nolan admitted he was "going for the window" when police knocked on the door but realized it wasn't opening enough to escape.Nolan said he sustained gunshot wounds to his left shoulder, left forearm and abdomen.Police said Nolan admitted firing a shot from the window of the America's Best Inn to "scare off" a man he identified as a drug dealer that was with his girlfriend. Police reports also show that New London police were the targets of a "swatting" incident shortly before the confrontation with Nolan, which is the false report intended to lead police to a certain location. At 2:50 p.m., at the time police were searching for Nolan, emergency dispatch in New London fielded a call for reports of two shots fired in the area Federal and Union streets. The caller, a female, claimed to hear gunshots and "see someone drop." Responding police found nothing at the scene, however, and think it was an effort to draw police away from the Clarion Inn. New London police later caught up with the woman who had placed the 911 call. Police said she told them Nolan had instructed her to make a false 911 call. Nolan was ordered held on $300,000 on the latest charges and is slated to return to New London Superior Court on Aug. 15. g.smith@theday.com