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A Father Remembers The Son He Lost In 'Collision Course'

Collision Course
/
Connecticut Public Television
Jose Vega, father of Anthony Jose "Chulo" Vega Cruz, mourns his son during a visit to a cemetery in Bloomfield, Conn.

It’s been six months since a police officer fatally shot Anthony Jose “Chulo” Vega Cruz after a traffic stop in Wethersfield, Conn.

The 18-year-old’s father, Jose Vega, often walks by the site of the shooting on Wethersfield’s Silas Deane Highway. It’s hard not to — he lives just a block and a half away. 

Vega moved his family to this suburb of Hartford nearly a year ago, dreaming of a better life for his son, starting with a neighborhood safer than the one they left behind in the city. 

He remembers his first thought when he saw their modest, immaculate home. “This is a mansion,” Vega recalls in Spanish. “Thank God things have gone well.”

On April 20, Chulo went out to eat with his girlfriend. Not long after, his father heard the cacophony of police sirens.

“I thought something happened, but I didn’t pay that much attention,” Vega says in a new TV documentary, Collision Course. “Then about an hour and a half later, my daughter gave me the news.”

The half-hour film, produced by Connecticut Public in collaboration with Hartford filmmaker Pedro Bermudez, delves into the dynamics leading up to the police shooting and the lives that collided on that April day. Collision Course is now available for streaming on CPTV.org and multiple platforms.

Vanessa de la Torre is Chief Content Officer at Connecticut Public, overseeing all content with a mission to inform, educate and inspire diverse audiences across the state, including on radio, television and our organization’s 60-plus digital platforms.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Fund the Facts

You just read trusted, local journalism that’s free for everyone, thanks to donors like you.

If that matters to you, now is the time to give. Join the 50,000+ members powering honest reporting and a more connected — and civil! — Connecticut.

Connecticut Public’s journalism is made possible, in part by funding from Jeffrey Hoffman and Robert Jaeger.