New Fairfield, Connecticut: Beloved Teacher Shoots and Kills His Own Son!

 

Jeffrey Giuliano

 

Tyler Giuliano in an undated photo 

Tyler Giuliano, c, in an undated photo with his foster family 

Tyler Giuliano, r, in an undated photo with his foster brother 

Andre Vasquez, l, and Tyler Giuliano, r, are shown in a Civil Air Patrol encampment photo taken April 2012
 

Tyler Giuliano, undated, 2012 

By Nicholas Stix

How does a man come to shoot and kill his own son, at 1 a.m., just a few feet away from the house they live in?

A tragic story that initially sounds inexplicable (“senseless”), then highly suspicious, and to certain minds like murder and/or a case for gun confiscation, makes sense once you fill in the facts and use a little common sense.

At 1 a.m. on September 28, Jeffrey Giuliano, a popular teacher in New Fairfield, CT, got a call from his sister, who lives next door, that someone was trying to break in to her house.

Giuliano took his gun, and went to check things out. On his siter’s property, he encountered a man clad in black, wearing a ski mask, and wielding a knife. The man in black lunged with the knife at Giuliano, who by his own admission, fired multiple times, hitting his assailant at least once, in the head, killing him.

During the confrontation, Giuliano’s wife and sister both frantically called 911, from their separate homes (listen to the audiotapes below).

The police arrived at the sister’s home in a few minutes, to find Jeffrey Giuliano vomiting. He did not know if he had killed his assailant, or who the assailant was.

The police determined that the man in black was dead, and removed his mask. Only then, was the dead individual identified as Giuliano’s 15-year-old son, Tyler.

All-knowing readers of the article on the incident, possessed with 20-20 hindsight, who could coolly size up and respond to a man trying to stab them to death without firing a weapon, variously explained the son’s actions as a “prank,” and condemned the father for owning, let alone firing a weapon.

Regardless of one’s age, one does not dress in black, don a mask, and brandish a knife to pull a “prank” on his aunt next door at 1 a.m.

The dressing in black, and donning a mask could be for a burglary, but as bad as that was, Tyler Giuliano knew that his aunt was home, making things even more sinister. Now, we’re in home invasion country. Then there is the matter of his brandishing a deadly weapon. That puts us in rape and/or murder territory.

How could it come to pass that Jeffrey Giuliano could be facing his own son, who had no criminal record, trying to kill him in his sister’s driveway?

For starters, though Jeffrey may have loved Tyler as a son, Tyler was not Jeffrey’s son. The Giulianos had adopted the boy and his sister four years earlier.

Jeffrey Giuliano knew the kids from his school. Reportedly, their father had been convicted of a felony, was heading to prison, and if someone didn’t adopt his kids, they were heading to “an orphanage.” (I’m an old now adoption, now foster-care worker, and wasn’t aware that this country still had orphanages. Maybe that was someone’s creative reporting, and the kids were headed (back) to foster care.)

To my knowledge, no one has reported what the father’s crime(s) was, but it looks like the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

However, the story suggesting that Tyler’s troubles began four years ago, can’t be right. Pictures have been published suggesting that Tyler spent virtually his entire life, prior to being adopted, in foster care. No article mentions his mother.

Most people are rightly leery of adoption, just as they are of becoming a step-parent. The potential downside is huge, while the likelihood of an upside is much lower. And the older the child in question, the more problematic the adoption tends to be.

It’s hard enough raising one’s own children, let alone raising someone else’s.

As terrible as this story is, it could have been much worse. Tyler could have left Mrs. Guliano a widow, and her three children and his sister grieving for Mr. Giuliano. Let us pray for him, and hope that he gets the spiritual help he needs.

* * *Conn. man kills masked teen then discovers it's his son
Carol Kaliff, AP
September 28, 2012
USA Today

NEW FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (AP) -- A fifth-grade teacher fatally shot a masked teenager in self-defense outside his neighbor's house during what he thought was an attempted burglary and then discovered it was his son, state police said.

The killing of 15-year-old Tyler Giuliano shortly after midnight Thursday left his quiet Connecticut town of New Fairfield reeling in confusion and grief. The teen's father, Jeffrey Giuliano, is a popular fifth-grade teacher in the community, where there is very little violent crime.

The neighbor, who is the teen's aunt, was alone in her house and believed someone was breaking in. She called the teen's father, who lives next door. He grabbed a gun, went outside, confronted someone wearing a black ski mask and black clothing and fired when the person went at him with a shiny weapon in his hand, police said.

When police arrived, the teen was lying in the driveway of the woman's home with gunshot wounds and a knife in his hand. His father, in T-shirt and shorts, was sitting on the grass. The teen was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

An officer pulled back the ski mask. It was unclear if Jeffrey Giuliano already knew it was his son. It was also unclear if the teen was trying to burglarize the house or if it was some type of prank gone wrong.

"All in all it's a tragedy," state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said.
Jeffrey Giuliano hadn't returned a message seeking comment on what happened. No one responded to knocks on the front door at his home or his sister's.

No charges have been filed.

John Hodge, the top elected official of the town of nearly 14,000 people some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from New York City, doesn't recall another killing in his eight years on the job. "You certainly don't expect it to happen in your own small hometown where there's very little crime."

The Giuliano home has a three-car garage, with a long, circular driveway near the end of a street. A pumpkin was set out in front of the home for Halloween.
On Friday, a blue crime scene tent covered evidence in the driveway where Tyler was pronounced dead; two white rocking chairs stood empty on his aunt's front porch next to a stack of firewood.

Spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said Friday that police were investigating whether the gun used was registered. That will take at least a week. Police were also looking for leads into whether Tyler, described as an easygoing teen who loved flying and was in the Civil Air Patrol, was going to burglarize the home or meant to carry out a prank. There was no immediate word on whether he had been in trouble before.

The high school stayed open late Thursday to provide grief counseling for students and parents.

"The community is deeply saddened, and our hearts go out to all the family members," said Alicia Roy, the superintendent of schools in New Fairfield.

She said Giuliano is a longtime resident who offers summer music and zoology camps for his students at Meeting House Hill School and plays in a band that raises a lot of money for charity.

"He wanted to teach in the community he grew up," she said. "He connects with the students. He's a caring person. Very interactive class."

Brian Wyckoff, 17, once had him as a teacher, and was a classmate of Tyler.

He said "Mr. G," as known around school, loves animals, and keeps snakes in his classroom.

"He was always walking around with a smile on his face. He always says "Hi" to everyone," Wycoff said.

Tyler was a student at New Fairfield High School, a short walk from the neighborhood where he was killed. Roy said he enjoyed spending time with his family. During a storm last year, he volunteered at a shelter set up the local high school, helping to serve meals and set up cots.

Roy said Tyler especially enjoyed flying gliders and single-engine planes out of Danbury airport.

"He would fly as many hours as possible," she said.

"He was a nice kid," said Wyckoff, who said Tyler wasn't in his circle of friends and that the slain teen was quiet and seemed a little shy.

The father played guitar in a local rock band, Split Decision. The band has a show scheduled Sunday to benefit a local charity.

Reached by telephone, keyboardist Lisa Tramazzo, who said she is also a teacher, and bass player Greg Gilroy both declined to talk about Giuliano.

"Nobody is going to answer your questions," Tramazzo said Friday.

An autopsy was planned. There was no word on funeral services.
--------------------------------------------
Associated Press reporter Dan Sewell reported from Cincinnati. Pat Eaton-Robb and Stephen Singer reported from Hartford, Conn.


* * *Update: Police Seek More Answers in Case of Son Mistaken for Robber
By Cora Van Olson
October 4, 2012 6:04 PM
TruTV/Crime Library

Update: Trying to determine what caused Tyler Giuliano to sneak around outside his home at one o’clock in the morning, armed and masked, police have requested access to the youth’s computer and phone. His parents, seeking the same answers, are cooperating with police.

Though the boy’s reasons for his actions that night are still a mystery, Giuliano’s attorney, Gene Zingaro, has outlined the factors motivating his client on the night of September 28, 2012. According to Zingaro, when Giuliano got the call from his sister next door saying that there was someone breaking in next door, he didn’t know whose house was being broken into, and feared that it could have been his own. Also, Zingaro told reporters, “Weighing heavily on his mind was the fact that there was a forced entry rape a day or two before in New Fairfield.” Zingaro added, “In my estimation, Jeff Giuliano felt like he had happened upon maybe the same intruder.” Zingaro believes that Giuliano feared for his life, and fired in self-defense.

Man Discovers Robber He Killed Was Actually His Son
________________________________________

Connecticut teacher Jeffrey Giuliano received a call from his sister, who lives next door, around 1 a.m. on September 28, 2012, about a someone breaking in to the house next door. So, gun in hand, he went outside and took a look around. He told police that a man armed with a knife, wearing an anorak and carrying a shiny object, lunged at him, and that he fired at least four times. It took a few hours to confirm, but Giuliano was told, to his horror, that the man he had killed was none other than Tyler Giuliano, 15, his adoptive son. Tyler and his sister were adopted by the Giulianos, who have three children of their own, when their biological father went to prison four years ago. Giuliano met the boy through his job at school, and adopted Tyler and his sister to keep them from going to an orphanage. Tyler was reportedly not a troubled teen, and has no criminal record.

Giuliano’s attorney, Gene Zingaro, reportedly arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting, to find Giuliano in shock and vomiting, “He was in disbelief and a state of shock.” According to Zingaro, Giuliano had reason to fear that the man he had killed was his son, based on some unstated reasons, and the fact that his son was apparently missing at the time. The Giuliano family has reportedly been cooperating with police from the beginning, allowing police to search their home without obtaining a warrant, and issuing a signed statement to police. Zingaro concluded saying, “In my opinion, Mr. Giuliano will not be charged with any type of offense.”
State police are continuing with their investigation, and have so far not made an arrest.

* * *911 tapes released in fatal shooting of son
Libor Jany
Updated Friday, October 5, 2012, 11:43 p.m.
News Times





NEW FAIRFIELD -- The wife of the man who fatally shot his adopted son last week was the first to dial police in the frantic moments after the shooting, according to a recording of the call provided by officials.

Her voice fraught with concern, Carolyn Giuliano told the dispatcher that her husband had gone next door to check on a disturbance at his sister's house. Moments later, she heard gunshots, she said.

The call to 911 came shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 27.

"I don't know. My husband ran next door to his sister's house to help her," she said to the dispatcher. "Send someone NOW."

Little new information on the incident emerged from the recording of the calls to 911, but the sense of urgency and emotion in the unfolding tragedy was palpable.
"Someone's been shot. They were trying to break into my house and I called my brother next door," Alexis Scocozza said on another 911 call. "I don't know if someone shot my brother or not. I don't know what's going on."

Her call came shortly after Carolyn Giuliano's, but the exact time was unclear.
The recordings show that "probably five or six" calls came into the dispatch center from people who heard "multiple" shots fired, and that the police arrived in a matter of minutes.

Much of the conversation on the recordings is between emergency personnel, one of whom noted that one person on the scene was "DOA" with a gunshot wound to the head.

The discovery that it was 15-year-old Tyler Giuliano who was unknowingly shot and killed by his father, Jeffrey Giuliano, was not included in the emergency call recordings.

Town officials released the 16 separate brief recordings Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The News-Times.

On that night last week, Scocozza had called her brother, who lived next door on Meeting House Hill Circle, because she said she feared someone was trying to break into her house.

Scocozza told the dispatcher that she had cracked open the door to see what was happening outside, but that her brother had "screamed for me to stay inside." The dispatcher later described Scocozza as "hysterical" on the phone.

"I've got to go outside," she told the dispatcher, crying.

"I want you to stay inside and keep the door locked," the dispatcher ordered.

"Please hurry, please hurry," she sobbed.

The dispatcher tried to assure her that police were on the scene.

Initially, emergency personnel were unsure whether it was the brother or the "intruder" who was shot.

Questions remain in the incident, including why Tyler Giuliano was wearing a ski mask and dark clothing, carrying a knife and other items, outside his aunt's house after midnight?

As the close-knit community comes together to grieve, detectives continue to try to piece together events leading up to the tragedy.

State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said Friday that he would not comment on the tape until authorities complete their investigation.

"There's a lot of work behind the scenes that people, attorneys included, don't know is going on," he said.

Jeffrey Giuliano told detectives that he shot the masked intruder after the intruder lunged at him with a knife, investigators said. Only later, when paramedics arrived to take the body away, did he learn the victim was his son.

Police found Tyler Giuliano sprawled in the driveway with a gunshot wound to the head, according to one of the 911 recordings.

Gene Zingaro, Giuliano's lawyer, said Friday that after the shooting the father had gone back to his house, "at which point his wife came out to check on his condition."

"The fact that he retreated to his own property is relevant, in that Mr. Giuliano had a fear after the shooting that No. 1, it is possible that the intruder could get up and harm him in some way and 2, he wasn't really safe until he got back to his property," Zingaro said. "The intruder was wearing a ski mask, so the head injury would not have been as easy to detect, especially at night."

He said that Jeffrey and Carolyn Giuliano had tried to return their family to some semblance of normalcy. Several of their children had gone back to school, though Jeffrey Giuliano remains on paid leave from his teaching job at a local elementary school, Zingaro said.

"They obviously understand what's going on. They support their father in any way that they can," Zingaro said. "Since there are six of them, the healing process is going at different rates."

He has said that investigators had asked permission to pore through computer and phone records for any material that might shed light on Tyler Giuliano's state of mind on that night.

Giuliano and his wife have cooperated with detectives since the beginning, the attorney said. No criminal charges have been filed.

ljany@newstimes.com; 203-731-3350; http://www.twitter.com/ljanyNT