Cop Who Shot Himself In Bagel King To Retire

Bridgeport Police Officer Juan Santiago, who was arrested on a state misdemeanor charge after he suffered a gunshot wound to his leg from an accidental discharge inside the Bagel King on Main Street last year, has put in his retirement papers. Santiago’s case is scheduled for a court hearing this week.

The .45 caliber semi-automatic weapon had apparently been loaned to another police officer by a physician who was returning the gun to an officer at Bagel King. The weapon had been passed to Santiago by another city police officer. The gun went off accidentally while Santiago examined the weapon. Several city police officers were in Bagel King at the time of the accident. The bullet shattered a Bagel King window.

Santiago worked in the identification division of the department that includes fingerprinting of civilians.

As president of the Bridgeport Police Hispanic Society, Santiago called for an investigation against Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi for slurs a college professor used in the context of ethics training last year. Some department members say the criticism directed at Nardozzi was a witch hunt for slashing police overtime.

The outside legal counsel the city hired to review the matter did not recommended formal disciplinary action against Nardozzi beyond sensitivity training. Basically the recommendation to the Board of Police Commissioners was sensitivity training for an incident that involved sensitivity training.

“Call my mother anything you want but don’t take away my overtime,” is how one police department member has described the anger police officers have toward the overtime cuts made by Nardozzi who invited a college academic to school sergeants and lieutenants in ethics training. Hispanic Society members claim Nardozzi stood by as the college professor William McDonald used racial and ethnic statements to make a point. The words were insensitive remarks, but in the context of training. Specifically McDonald had cited inflammatory remarks used by West Haven police officers that led to a federal Justice Department review and criminal charges based on ethnic and racial targeting.