New Haven Independent: Neighbors React to Triple Shooting

Neighbors React to Triple Shooting

by Nick Vinocur | July 2, 2007 5:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

As a nine-year-old boy lay in the hospital recovering from Sunday night’s triple-shooting, neighbors called for more police presence on his notoriously drug-plagued street.

Keyshawn Webb, 9, was watching cartoons in his living room Sunday night when a stray bullet flew through the wall of his Truman Street home, striking him in the abdomen. Two others — Joseph Robinson, 33, and Cedric Braswell, 18 — also sustained serious gunshot wounds from a round of shots fired shortly after 10:30 p.m. Sunday in the Hill neighborhood, according to city police.

Police said Keyshawn, a third-grader at Katherine Brennan Elementary School, was still in serious condition on Monday as he recovered from surgery at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Robinson, who was shot in the jaw, was treated and released from the hospital. Braswell, who police say was the intended victim, remains under medical watch for a shoulder wound.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw two individuals— the 18-year-old victim and an as-yet-unidentified shooter — arguing heatedly at the intersection of Truman and West Streets. One pulled a weapon and started firing.

Godfather: “This is what we live in”

“Everybody ran,” said G., aged 37, who was sitting on his front porch when the shots were fired. He saw some thirty youths who had been watching the fight barrel down the street for cover. “I was out here, ducking,” he said.

G, who asked not to be identified by his real name, was understandably distraught the morning after the shooting: the man who was shot in the jaw is his cousin, and the nine-year-old victim is his godson.

When the shooting started, “baby was on the first floor watching TV on the couch,” he said.

G came in to check on his godson and found him hunched over on the living-room floor. He lifted up the boy’s shirt and saw the bullet hole in his abdomen. “He’s a strong kid—wasn’t crying or nothing,” he said, describing the boy as “energetic—someone who can take care of himself.”

“This is what we live in,” he added. “It’s the Fourth of July weekend and he [his godson] can’t eat. No hotdogs and burgers for him.”

Assistant Police Chief Herman Badger (pictured above at left), speaking to reporters at the crime scene Monday, said police had “some leads” and were benefiting from good witness cooperation.

Badger said the shooting was “not a drug-related incident” and had arisen from a “dispute between two individuals over an issue” that remains undetermined. He said cops had a suspect in mind, but had not made any arrests.

The suspect fired at least five shots before fleeing on foot to another location in the neighborhood, Badger said.

“Plagued” With Drugs

Lt. Joseph Streeto, district manager for the Hill South policing district, acknowledged that the Hill neighborhood, and Truman Street in particular, presented “challenges” to the NHPD.

Truman Street is known across the city and suburbs as a place to buy drugs, said Streeto. “It’s been plagued in the past with drug-trafficking,” he acknowledged, adding the last couple months the street has been “hot.” Narcotics officers are currently investigating reports of drug sales on that street, and the city had increased patrols, installed public lighting as part of the Light the Night program, and trimmed trees as a counter-measure to loitering and other criminal activity, Streeto said.

But many residents of the Hill expressed frustration with the ongoing spate of violence in their neighborhood, blaming the city for cut-backs in summer programs for kids, and calling for more community policing.

Greg Abraham, 48, a former construction worker who has lived on Frank Street for most of his life, said that the Hill neighborhood had taken a turn for the worse in the last decade. Open drug-dealing and gun violence contribute to an atmosphere of fear, he said.

“I’ve been around here most of my life, but it’s really bad now,” he said. “You can’t even walk down the street at night; you’re scared of getting shot.”

After Sunday, Abraham said that he had taken his mattress down from his bed and placed it on the floor to avoid being hit by runaway bullets in the event of another shooting. He was pessimistic about seeing any improvement in the neighborhood’s security.

“The New Haven police—they’ll come around and calm things down for a while,” he said, “but then it starts again. They won’t put a decent police force down here.”

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Comments

Posted by: Ned | July 2, 2007 7:01 PM

I can't imagine any suburbanite driving into the Hill, risking getting ripped off or worse to buy drugs. I don't know of any suburbanites that would drive into the Hill for any reason; it's way too scary. Are there any statistics on the people arrested for making drug purchases, in New Haven, to support the claim regarding suburbanites making purchases here? I lived on Putnam St. 20 years ago and it was the same story then. I don't even drive through the Hill to get to West Haven. Also it isn't "drug related violence" it's drug Prohibition related violence; same dynamic only instead of alchohol it's other drugs.
30 unsupervised kids on the street at night watching a fight? - sounds like there are a whole lot of issues that need to be addressed.
That poor 9 year old kid was probably in shock.

Posted by: FairHavenRes | July 2, 2007 9:22 PM

Are you kidding me? Hey Chief Ortiz, crime is down and shootings are up. Thanks for the good news.

When are we going to call in the State Police to help keep a lid on it for the summer like they have done in Hartford??? I hope our statistic quoting, overly defensive, Chief Ortiz, killer of community policing, is not too prideful that he cant ask for help.

There needs to be an emergency curfew. Call in the state police, and get rid of Cisco. He has proven himself a threat to public safety.

Innocents caught in a crossfire. All of us in this community are responsible. While I firmly believe that our statistic quoting, self defensive Chief killed community policing and has not a clue how to police this city, I must also admit that there are no quick fixes, no easy snappy solutions, no gun carrying posee, no group of outraged clergy, no governmental initiatives that will end this violence.

We all, each and every person, have got to take responsibility, for ourselves, our kids, our street, neighborhood, and our city. Because if we dont, we are going to lose it all.

Posted by: on whalley | July 3, 2007 8:33 AM

They wont put a decent police force down there because they want the city to die.

I remember the Long River Village growing up. Every so often the cops would put a police substation there and within a month the residents would torch it. No pizza deliveries and the meter man came with police escort. Eventually the city bulldozed it. All of the surrounding cities are bulldozing their Long River Villages and the crap is all flowing straight into New Haven because we refuse to bulldoze, we refuse to police, and we frown upon residents taking care of themselves. God forbid we actually judge people or call scum by its name. We're New Haven! We love and tolerate everything even as it's raping our daughters and shooting out fathers for $10.

So what are we supposed to do? Cant count on the cops, cant police ourselves, wont bulldoze it? Where are the "just write a check" people? There's always a good sized group of idiots who claim money will solve the problem. So lets jack the taxes to 80% and everything will be rainbows and sunshine wont it? Why get the cops we have to work when we could just hire more? Cops are like teachers are like any other unionized city employees. Give them all the money in the world and maybe after their coffee break theyll do something.

If the cops wont do it, dont want to do it, free us up to do it rather than arrest us for assault like in "He Wasnt Taking It" or charge us with unlawful restraint and kidnapping for delivering one to you or charging us with possession for filming a drug purchase and bringing you all the evidence you need with names and numbers to make the right arrests.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | July 3, 2007 1:03 PM

oxymoron right "crime down, shootings up??"

Why are there shootings?? What causes people to shoot at each other?? Drugs, mostly drug realated things, and yes even muggings and robbery are some how connected to drugs??

HEY OFFICERS GET RID OF THE DRUG PROBLEM AND GET RID OF THE SHOOTINGS!!! We the citizens HAVE TOLD YOU who is dealing where the drugs are and yet they are still there!! HELLO!!! IS ANY BODY OUT THERE!!

Posted by: cedarhillresident | July 3, 2007 1:50 PM

on whalley

We did the same thing Pictures Plates Videos!! Ya think anything was done?? We the citizens risk our lives to get this info and it is not even looked at!! I have a bag fool of baggys!! I save it all (well most don't save the condoms)Some day I am going to go to a mayors night out and dump the bag out when there is enough press there.

Posted by: Frank Iezzi | July 3, 2007 4:04 PM

On Whalley, you're right. The city is dying because the politicians are too hamstrung by their liberal ideologies and PC politics to do whats right. The ID card fiasco is the last nail in the coffin to turn New Haven into Bridgeport. Why anyone would continue to support this mess, which is destined to get worse, is beyond me.

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Neighbors React to Triple Shooting

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