Rep. Khan calls for DOJ investigation into Hartford police response after assault: ‘Nobody came to our aid’

In her first public appearance after being attacked while leaving a Muslim prayer service, state Rep. Maryam Khan said Thursday she will call on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate how the Hartford Police Department responds to violent crimes after Khan alleged the department mishandled several aspects of their response to her violent assault.

In remarks made to the media and state leaders in Hartford Thursday, Khan claimed, among several allegations, that the official police report lacked key details relayed to law enforcement, that she had to request her own medical attention and convince first responders that she was injured, and that police did not accompany Khan to her car after the on-scene investigation, leaving Khan to walk multiple city blocks without an escort following her assault.

“So many systems failed that day. And I know that our systems are not perfect, this is why I ran for office, but they cannot be this broken,” Khan said. “If this is our best, I have no idea what our worst is. And I can’t imagine. And that is what has stopped my healing process — I cannot even focus on my own personal healing, because that’s all I’m thinking about. What do other women get? What do other women of color get? What would another Muslim woman have gotten if it was not me outside of that XL Center?”

A visibly anguished Khan arrived in Hartford Thursday with her arm in a sling. After receiving just an ice pack from medics at the scene of the assault, Khan said she has been to the ER twice for a concussion and the loss of all feeling in her right arm and shoulder, which she believes is the result of neck pain.

Khan shared events that she described as a “revictimization” from first responders on the day of the assault, which she said led her to call on the DOJ to investigate the Hartford Police Department’s response to crimes, “especially violent crimes on women.”

On June 28 a man verbally and physically attacked Khan as she took photos with her three children, her best friend and her sister outside the XL Center in Hartford following an Eid al-Adha prayer service that draws thousands of muslims and state officials to the arena each year.

The suspect in custody is 30-year-old Andrey Desmond of New Britain, who has a 10-year criminal record and was previously convicted of breach of peace, larceny, and assault as misdemeanors.

Desmond is currently held on a $250,000 bond on charges of second-degree unlawful restraint, third-degree assault, second-degree breach of peace and interfering with an officer/resisting arrest. Desmond has not been charged with a hate crime.

Farhan Memon, the chair of the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate whether bias motivated the assailant.

Khan said one of her big frustrations was that the religious circumstances surrounding her assault were not included in the police report.

“What was the most difficult these last few days was seeing that the police report did not reflect everything or anything that happened to me,” Khan said. “This person came up to us and asked us for a kiss, that’s all. There were no children. This was not an Eid day. I was not a Muslim — nothing — that’s what’s in the report.”

When asked if she believed her identity as a Muslim woman played a role in the assault and the police and medic response, Khan said she could not “speak to anyone’s motives.”

Khan said she did not know why the perpetrator picked her group out but said that “the way that Muslim women are portrayed in the media is (that) we are vulnerable, easy to subdue.”

As for the first responders, Khan said that she does not know why they handled her case in the manner that they did, adding that is the reason “why I think it’s important to have an investigation.”

After listening to Khan’s remarks Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said that violence against women is a “huge issue” and that she was disturbed to learn of the treatment Khan said she received.

“It took so long for someone to help her and then to hear her story about how she was treated after, it’s just devastating and tremendously disturbing,” Bysiewicz said. “We are just hearing the full story as are you, and I’m still trying to process all of this, but to just hear this story about this terrible treatment that she received is just incredibly disturbing.”

The Hartford Police Department and Mayor Luke Bronin each issued a statement following Khan’s press conference.

“We will review every aspect of our response and we always want to get better and do better, and we take seriously the importance of responding not just as the law requires, but to ensure that we are working with partners to support victims in every way possible,” Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody said in a statement. “We are continuing to investigate this assault thoroughly and we are working closely with the state’s attorney.”

Thody noted that “detectives have supplemented the initial report with additional information and context” and that the department was working to release body camera footage after many requests.

“Nobody should have to go through what Representative Khan and her family have gone through, and I’m deeply sorry for what happened to her,” Bronin said in a statement released with Thody’s statement. “Today is her day to tell her story as she experienced it, and I just want to respect that. We take transparency very seriously, we welcome any inquiries and reviews, and we will release as much information and footage as we can and as Representative Khan requests.”

Khan tells her story

After beginning her comments Thursday with a blessing and words of thanks for her support team, Khan said that she called the press conference to state her story.

“I am the only one that can say what happened to me and what I experienced, and that’s not what was made public to people,” Khan said.

In a harrowing recollection of events, Khan described how the suspect approached the group of women and children as they posed for photos outside and followed them back into the XL Center as they attempted to distance themselves from the man.

“As we were trying to get inside, he made comments, stating that he intended to have sexual relations with someone, one of us. And he looked at each one of us, including my 15-year-old daughter and my 10-year-old daughter,” Khan said.

Khan said that inside the XL Center the man grabbed her face and said “Give me a kiss.”

Khan said that she tried to deescalate the situation and walked back outside so that the man would be away from her children.

After following Khan outside the XL Center, the man tried to grab her face once again. Khan said she dodged his attempt but he responded by slapping Khan across her right cheek.

Khan said the man grabbed her and held her back, pointing at those who tried to intervene by mimicking a gun with his pointer finger and thumb on his free hand, before slamming her body to the ground.

“I thought I was going to die. And my best friend of 15 years was there and I looked at her apologetically (saying) that I was going to give up, that I was no longer going to fight, because I knew I was going to die,” Khan said, at times, her voice cracking with tears. “(He) threw me. I felt nothing. But I shot up and I ran for my life.”

Khan said she made it back into the XL Center to the downstairs level where security met with her and immediately put Khan, her family and her friend in a safe room where Khan said her 15-year-old daughter suffered a panic attack and stopped breathing for a moment.

Several minutes later, security informed her that the police needed Khan’s statement. Khan said her sister took her children home while security walked Khan and her friend outside, back through the location of the assault and two blocks down the road where police had apprehended the suspect.

“I remember walking and saying, ‘Why are we walking so much?’” Khan said. “When I came, there was no ambulance. There was no one there to provide me medical attention. I asked for them to call for medical attention.”

Khan said when medics finally arrived, she remembered “feeling that I had to convince them that I was injured.”

“After I described what happened to me, that I was slammed onto the floor, they touched my neck, said, ‘It’s not a spine injury, it’s probably muscle pain,’ and gave me an ice pack and said, I should go to the urgent care if I feel more pain,” Khan said.

Khan said police then asked her to identify the suspect, opening the doors of the vehicle so they could see her face.

“In that moment, it wasn’t post-trauma, it was still — I was in that moment,” Khan said. “And then when we gave our statements, (the police) said, ‘Okay, you’re good to go, and we walked three blocks back to our car. We were not escorted. … And thankfully we made it to the car and we made it home.”

Reflecting on the incident, Khan said there were many missed opportunities where she felt people should and could have intervened. Ultimately Khan thanked the civilians who intervened to try to stop the assault and apprehend her alleged attacker.

“We screamed inside and outside and nobody came to our aid, no security, no police, nobody. And when I got there in the morning, there was police,” Khan said. “I know there was a moment that I thought that I was going to die. And the people that came to my aid, the civilians that came to my aid, people that put their own safety on the line were the ones that saved my life that day, that saved our lives, my children.”