Cop Badly Hurt by Hammer-Wielding Suspect Who Had 30 Priors

(Daily360.com) – A man named Winston Tate is accused of assaulting police detective Karli Travis with a hammer. The incident took place in Middletown Connecticut earlier this month.

Travis’ body cam seems to show an irate Tate charging her and assaulting her violently with a hammer. Tate who is a much larger individual than Travis, appears to have her on the ground and is using his mass to pin her underneath him as he strikes her with the weapon. Travis was able to draw her weapon and shoot Tate but that had little effect. Luckily a nearby pedestrian intervened and distracted Tate enough for Travis to get out from underneath him and survive the encounter.

The back-story is one all too often heard in America these days; Tate had a criminal history dating back to 1996 and at least 30 arrests. He should have been incarcerated at the time of this assault but was released just three months into a three-year sentence he received for robbing a store a assaulting the manager.

Tate earned another two-year sentence in 2018 for carrying a dangerous weapon but he was released after six months. Tate only served 120 days of a separate two-year sentence he received for a second DUI conviction. Tate has also violated his parole several times with no ramifications. A 2020 conviction for assaulting another police officer saw Tate only receive probation.

Nick Puorro, Middletown Police Union President, said Tate should not have been on the street with his long record of violent acts. He remarked that police had been called to Tate’s residence four times in the prior month alone. He was allegedly “terrorizing” his neighbors and a tenant. Puorro contends that someone like Tate who has “proven he is not a functioning member of society” needs to be locked up and judges must refrain from constantly letting him off with probation or releasing him with reduced sentences. Puorro called Travis a hero for the way she handled the situation but also said she’d prefer to avoid the spotlight and wants the media attention to “go away.”