New Haven Independent

The capture took place without incident Wednesday. Pizzy was in the process of being released Thursday afternoon on $177,500 bond.

Police believe that “Pizzy” — who also goes by the nickname “Black Pat” — has been overseeing the growth of the local branch of Grape Street Crips, a faction of the national drug-dealing street gang.

Pizzy’s girlfriend denied the allegations that he is in a gang.

The local gang started out in the Hill; now it’s branching out citywide, according to Lt. John Velleca, who heads the police department’s Tactical Narcotics Unit. (Read about Velleca’s unit’s strategy here.)

Velleca (pictured) said Grape Street Crips has about 15-20 members, young men ages 15 to 29. The cops arrested the group’s previous leader last year, and he remains in jail. Pizzy has stepped in to fill the void, Velleca said.

“They don’t really have an established hierarchy,” he said, but to the extent one person is in charge of recruitment and other duties, that would be Pizzy, who’s 26 and lives on Sherman Avenue.

In August he was living on Lines Street. The TNU raided his apartment and confiscated cash, drugs, “and street gang literature and correspondence,” according to a press release.

They didn’t capture Pizzy that day. They put out two arrest warrants for him, and put out word they were looking for him.

Wednesday morning an informant revealed that Pizzy was driving around town in a gray Chevy Equinox. Det. Matt Merced of the TNU spotted the car on George Street around 11 a.m.

Detectives followed the car while calling for patrol back-up. Then patrol officers stopped the Chevy on Orchard Street between Edgewood Avenue and Chapel Street, and several cruisers converged on the scene. The cops closed the block to traffic. Pizzy was in the car along with his girlfriend, their young son, and another woman, according to Velleca.

Police found marijuana in the car’s center console, according to an arrest report. “The weed in the car is mine,” Pizzy reportedly said.

He put up no resistance, Velleca said. “I don’t think he knew he was wanted.”

Pizzy had been driving the car, but it belonged to his girlfriend, Velleca said. After checking the girlfriend’s license and confirming that she had no outstanding warrants, police let her leave the scene with the son. They arrested Pizzy on charges of narcotics possession, dealing within 1,500 feet of a school, violating probation, and driving with a suspended license.

Police also arrested the other woman in the car for disorderly conduct and interfering with police, after she reportedly swore repeatedly at officers.

Under Pizzy’s direction, the Crips have been growing in recent months, Velleca said. “They’re spanning the city pretty much now; at least they’re trying to.”

Pizzy’s girlfriend defended him Thursday as she stood in a Superior Court clerk’s office with the bail bondsman preparing to have Pizzi sprung.

“That’s a lie. He’s got a family … He’s not a member of a gang,” she said about charges that Pizzy runs a the Crips. Her son, Joson, who’s 17 months old, was with her.

“We want to know why they’re affiliating him with anything,” she said. She suggested he was a victim of “guilt by association,” perhaps for being seen hanging out with people who belong to a gang. “The police are going to come up with what they’re going to come up with,” she said.

ShotSpotted

In other police news, the ShotSpotter system helped police locate a shooting victim on Goffe Street, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery.

In the “early morning hours” on Thursday, officers responded to a ShotSpotter report at 200 Goffe St. Police found a 19-year-old man who was bleeding from his mouth. He said that he had been jumped by two or three attackers. The victim was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where X-rays found a bullet lodged in the back of his neck. His injuries were considered non-life-threatening.

For block-by-block year-to-date crime info, and daily crime maps, check the Independent’s crime log.