(Updated Monday) Police arrested three people late Thursday night outside a Westville residence following a fight that included shots being fired.
The incident occurred on Central Avenue between Fountain and Willard Streets shortly before 11:30 p.m.
Here’s what happened, according to police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart. It gets a bit complicated, especially since we’re not publishing names, so you may want to take each sentence a step a time.
A man was returning home, walking in his driveway. A female “friend” had just dropped him off.
Another man showed up. This second man is the ex-boyfriend of the first man’s female “friend.” The female friend does not live at the address.
The second man “confronted” and “threatened” his ex-girlfriend’s “friend,” Bruckhart wrote in a release.
“A struggle ensued” between the two men.
A relative of the first man “heard the commotion and came downstairs to help.” I.e., he became part of the fight. The three men struggled over a handgun the visitor had brought. “While all three parties were struggling for the firearm,” Bruckhart wrote, “two shots were fired.
“The melee continued down the driveway and into the street, where an additional round went off.”
Someone called 911. The cops showed up.
They arrested the ex-boyfriend on home invasion, assault, reckless endangerment, and various firearms offenses. The man was also taken by ambulance to the hospital because he’d suffered “non-life-threatening injuries.”
Police recovered a Glock 19 9mm handgun with a high-capacity magazine. The other people “declined medical attention.”
At first police thought there might be a second potential suspect and searched the area, but then concluded they had the right person.
Update: Top Westville cop Lt. Brian McDermott wrote in a weekly email report Sunday to neighbors that the suspect was “angry” that the Central Avenue man was dating his ex-girlfriend. He also added that the man who came out of the house to help the Central Avenue man was his father. McDermott stated that the suspect fired three bullets but no one was struck.
Also: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the gun had belonged to the victim, not the suspect. We apologize for the error.
The new haven register (which chooses to continue to post news after sundown Friday thru Sunday) has the actual details.
So I guess it is important to have an actual commercial news organization in town still