A man with alleged gang ties has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for trying to kill a police officer in 2021 hours after investigators identified him as a person of interest in the fatal shooting of a woman found dead in an apartment in Hartford.
Jose Cajigas, 35, of Hartford faced sentencing last Friday in Hartford Superior Court where Nuala E. Droney ordered that his prison term will be followed by five years of special parole, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice.
In October, Droney found Cajigas guilty on charges of attempted murder, assault on a police officer and criminal possession of a firearm.
According to the DCJ, the incident involved what was described as an unprovoked shooting involving a young police officer who was on patrol in her cruiser in a parking lot at 1921 Main St. in Hartford around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2021. The officer spotted a man with an orange umbrella walking toward her vehicle and she tried to engage him, the DCJ said.
The man, who was later identified as Cajigas, paced in front of the vehicle before approaching the driver’s side, officials said. The officer, who had been on the force at the time for less than two years, asked Cajigas what he needed.
“You need a ride? What’s going on?” the officer says in a video of the incident.
Cajigas moved away from the vehicle for a few seconds before reengaging in conversation, DCJ officials said. The video showed that the officer then asked if he was on medication or drunk, telling him, “All right, you need an ambulance? Probably? All right.”
Cajigas’ demeanor suddenly changed once he was asked if he had been drinking, officials said. He reportedly told the officer that he was intoxicated and possibly needed assistance.
The officer told Cajigas to sit on the hood of her vehicle while she radioed for an ambulance, according to officials. She then suddenly heard a loud bang as the driver’s side window shattered.
DCJ officials said the officer initially believed Cajigas threw something at the vehicle. She moved the cruiser and told dispatchers what had just happened, keeping her eyes on Cajigas as she did, according to previous reports.
Police said it was later determined that Cajigas had fired a gun toward the officer and that the bullet narrowly missed her. The window shattered into her face, leaving her with cut wounds.
After moving her vehicle, the officer circled back and told dispatchers Cajigas could be seen fleeing toward a cemetery, DCJ officials said.
Officers who responded to the area established a perimeter around the cemetery and apprehended Cajigas within minutes, officials said. In the immediate area, police found an orange umbrella and a loaded .22 caliber Jennings firearm, according to the DCJ.
Investigators who combed through the parking lot where the shooting took place found a .22 caliber shell casing, officials said.
“The criminal acts committed against this Officer are detestable and have no place in our community,” Hartford Judicial District State’s Attorney Sharmese L. Walcott said in a statement. “This sentence, that includes a lengthy period of incarceration followed by a period of community-based monitoring, is a clear signal of the intolerance for the defendant’s actions.”
Following the shooting, Hartford police said Cajigas was a person of interest in the murder of 53-year-old Catherine Hayes, who was found dead a day earlier around 4 p.m. in an apartment about a mile away from the parking lot where the officer was nearly shot, according to previous reports. She was found after officers responded to the unit on the report that a woman may have overdosed or experienced some other kind of medical emergency.
At the time, police said they had identified Cajigas as a person of interest in Hayes’ killing prior to the shooting involving the officer, reports said. They also said they expected to charge him in her death, reports said.
A forensic analysis showed that the shell casing found in the parking lot where the cruiser was shot matched the casing found in the apartment where Hayes had been killed, according to previous reporting.
Previous reports indicated that Cajigas was believed to have ties to the Los Solidos gang.
Court records reviewed on Friday indicate Cajigas has a number of cases still pending, including those involving murder and criminal possession of a firearm charges, which stem from the day Hayes was found dead. In another case stemming from an incident in September 2021, Cajigas faces accessory to murder and another criminal possession of a firearm charge, records show.