New Haven Independent

The crashes occurred during a chase of a shooting suspect Sunday evening. Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery:

Around 8 p.m., the cops were staking out a suspect in a previous shooting at Stage Door Johnny’s strip club on St. John Street. The suspect was driving a red Honda on Howard Avenue in the Hill. He had a gun with him.

Uniformed cops tried to stop him near Lamberton and Arthur. He drove right at Officer Jason Jackson’s cruiser to try to escape — and hit Jackson’s car. Then he kept driving throughout town as cops in other cruisers tried to stop him.

Two of the cops involved in the pursuit — Sgt. Koening and Officer Maneet Bhagtana (pictured) — collided at George and Greenwood streets as they tried to stop him.

Finally, the suspect left his car in that area. He fled on foot, but Officer Oscar Diaz caught him. Along the way, Avery said, the suspect dropped a handgun and some heroin and marijuana.

The cops arrested the suspect and brought him to Yale-New Haven Hospital, because he “complained of shoulder pain.” The cops are guarding him while he’s being examined there.

Meanwhile, the three officers went to the hospital, too. Koenig and Jackson have since been released. Koenig “complained of lower back and hip pain.” Jackson “strained his right hand.” Bhagtana, a one-time Independent cop of the week, continues to be treated for mouth and neck injuries.

Round-Up

In other incidents, according to Officer Avery:

Two men walked into the Wok One Chinese take-out on Lombard Street around 8 p.m. Sunday, grabbed $200 from the register and a cook’s wallet, then fled. One of the thieves gripped “the handle of a chrome handgun.”

Around 11 p.m. Sunday, the police arrested a 20-year-old man with a handgun at a home on Rock Creek Road. The man and accomplices had been “fighting” earlier with the owner of a car they were trying to break into there.

Friday afternoon, officers John Kaczor and Dave Totino followed a stolen car in the Annex. The driver “abruptly” pulled into a Fairmont Avenue driveway and the car’s occupants ran away. The cops found a loaded .380 semi-automatic pistol in the car. They caught a passenger nearby who, Avery said, had 26 packets of crack on him. After an hour’s search, Officer Craig Miller found the driver “hiding among large concrete blocks and covered with a sheet at 102 Wheeler St.” He, too, had drugs on him: four packets of powder cocaine. More ammunition was found in the car’s trunk. The police charged the pair, both felons, with drug, weapons and larceny offenses.

Crime Map

Police report eight car thefts and four residential burglaries over the weekend.

Click here for a list of crimes on Nov. 20-22. Click on the image below to see those crimes placed on a city-wide map.

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