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by Melissa Bailey | Oct 9, 2009 3:43 pm

(31) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Legal Writes, Newhallville

Two days after a man was shot dead in a Newhallville hallway, tenants were still walking past a pool of blood—until the city and neighbors stepped in.

The cleanup took place Friday afternoon at 128 Sheffield Ave., a three-family home in Newhallville where a man was killed Wednesday morning. Maurice Earls, 20, of New Haven, was found in the hallway at 4 a.m. suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said. He died shortly after.

More than two days later, a large pool of blood remained caked onto the wooden floor in the landing of the stairway, which leads up to the second- and third-floor apartments. The mess was posing a disturbing hazard for the woman on the third story, who has three kids under age 10, neighbors said: In order to get home, her family had to tiptoe around a crime scene.

The situation offered a question people don’t always think about after a murder: Who’s responsible for cleaning up the blood?

Several neighbors said they thought the victim’s family should be responsible, but the victim’s mom is still on her way back from Virginia.

The police department does not have anyone who cleans up crime scenes, police spokesman Joe Avery said. The duty falls to the landlord, he said.

In this case, the landlord was apparently out of the country.

So the job fell to Rafael Ramos, deputy chief of the city’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative. Ramos got a call Friday morning from Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards, who lives next door. She told him how children were being forced to walk by that crime scene, while the landlord was nowhere to be found.

Ramos first tried to track down the landlord, George Aseme. He called two numbers for Aseme but could not reach him. Aseme lives in the city and owns four properties here. He appears to be out of town, Ramos said: When LCI arrived at a scheduled inspection on one of Aseme’s other properties last week, the landlord didn’t show. Ramos said he thinks Aseme is on a trip to Africa. (Aseme couldn’t be reached for this story.)

Failing to find landlord or superintendent, Ramos showed up at the house at about 11:20 a.m. Friday. The yellow tape was gone. A small memorial (pictured) sat on the porch.

Police are still investigating the killing: They have made no arrests. They have reopened the scene of the crime. It was clear that nothing had been cleaned since crime scene investigators left. Four penciled boxes on the door marked spots where fingerprints had been removed.

Ramos opened the door to the stairway.

“That’s a lot of blood,” he remarked.

The sight was sickening. A few steps up, a memorial candle sat, burnt out. He tiptoed up the staircase and knocked on the second- and third-story apartments. No one was home.

“I can’t leave it like that,” Ramos said. “I got kids.”

“I’m going to clean that up,” he said. He jumped in his car and headed to the dollar store. He came back with a mop, scrub pads, two bottles of bleach, dish soap, a bucket, protective gear and an extra hand. LCI is trained in cleaning up blood-born pathogens, a city spokeswoman said.

City inspector Mark Stroud (pictured) of LCI put on big rubber boots and yellow overshoes. Ramos got into a white Tyvek suit. They set to work.

The task proved stomach-turning, and difficult. The blood was so caked into the floor that Ramos had to get an ice-scraper from a nearby car. Ramos sacrificed a towel from his car to clean the floor.

Soon, they needed a refill of water. That’s when neighbors started pitching in.

One supplied a spigot for water.

When Stroud rang her doorbell, Debra Fraser-Coleman, a neighbor across the street, gladly handed over four towels. She said her heart went out to her neighbors. She said the woman on the third floor can’t use the back stairs because there are no lights.

“It’s horrible,” Fraser-Coleman said. “Why she has to walk through that?”

“I don’t understand why it wasn’t cleaned up,” she added. She said she was glad she could help.

Back at the house, Ramos and Stroud kept scrubbing.

“Kids should not be coming home to a reminder” of a killing, Ramos said. “This is very traumatizing.”

“The next thing is to start helping people recover by getting rid of the reminders,” he said, as they scrubbed the door clean. “I want to get this out, just so they can start forgetting about it.”

Kimberly Edwards, who lives next door, gave Ramos a bottle of Ajax to finish the job.

Ripples of the tragedy hit her home, too.

Edwards, who’s 35, recounted how she had to shield her own son from the incident when they left for school Wednesday morning. The house next door was abuzz with police.

“I had to explain away the crime tape to my 6-year-old,” she said.

“It’s crazy,” she said of the killing. “People don’t value life.”

After over an hour of scrubbing, Ramos announced that the children could come back to a clean home. He said the health department came by to clear the work after he finished. He called Alderwoman Edwards to tell her the job was done.

“He’s a hero,” remarked Edwards.

Meanwhile, friends remembered the victim, whose nickname is “Scooby,” in a sidewalk memorial at Thompson Street and Dixwell Avenue.

When he died Wednesday, Maurice Earls left behind a girlfriend who’s due to have a baby in the next two weeks, neighbors said.

“R.I.P. Scoobb,” read a piece of plyboard leaning against the fence. Nearby on the sidewalk sat a display: candles with pictures of a “guardian angel,” empty bottles of Remy Martin, and a five-dollar bill cut up into pieces and scattered across the ground.

Someone stuffed dollar bills into a bottle of Hennessey and placed it next to the candles.

“RIP Scooby,” read a note on one of the glass candle holders. “You will never be forgotten.”

Comments

posted by: Volvo on October 9, 2009 3:54pm

Hope the city has trained it’s employees regarding the bloodborne pathogens standard, otherwise the taxpayers are on the hook for some penalties if OSHA reads about this clean-up operation and see the pics.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10051

posted by: New_Haven_Resident on October 9, 2009 4:17pm

Good job Ramos and Mark Stroud! But is sad that the neighbors had to walked through that with her kids.

Soon New Haven is going to end up with no youth.

posted by: Jon Doe on October 9, 2009 4:49pm

I would like to know how many times LCI goes to crime scenes on private property? or do they only do it after a phone call from an Alderwoman?

posted by: Hmmm... on October 9, 2009 5:31pm

First, I have to say that once again Ralph Ramos has shown that he is a caring person who loves this city and the people who live here. Thank you.

Now… what troubles me is not that some kids had to walk through blood. What troubles me is that the residents allowed it to stay that way until ‘somebody else’ did something about it. I’m sorry but it never should have gotten to this point. Instead of calling for someone else to do this I would think the Alderwoman would be out rounding up residents to help her clean it up. Where is the community? Where is the local leadership? I’m not singling out Alfreda. I doubt if more than 5 of the current Alders would have thought to be leaders in their communities and gather their neighbors to care for each other.

You want to know what I think is the problem with our city? APATHY and a LACK OF LEADERSHIP!!! Stop waiting for somebody else to fix it for you. Get off your ass and FIX IT YOUR-DAMN-SELF!!! I’ll help.

posted by: Beaver Hill Resident on October 9, 2009 5:39pm

Thank Ralph and LCI for performing a very difficult job that no one else was prepared or willing to do.

posted by: Oh Please on October 9, 2009 6:52pm

Volvo’s attitude is so—Yale. How anti-community. I guess if this happened in your neighborhood, well, you would just get in your Volvo and drive to your country house to get away from it all! And from the comfort of your country house you and your neighbors could call the hired help to clean up the blood.

What LCI did was nothing short of admirable.

posted by: cat2000 on October 9, 2009 6:58pm

john doe, you clearly missed the point. and i hope your cynicism doesn’t mean that you expect LCI to always show up to clean crime scenes. i think they only do this when they try to reach a landlord after being notified by the alderwoman; and where the landlord might be on a different continent; and the site is so sickening that 2 goodhearted employees couldn’t imagine their children being exposed to such an image. at least that’s what i gather from the story.

good job fellas.

posted by: Edward_H on October 9, 2009 7:00pm

http://www.traumaway.com/

Never had to use them myself thank goodness

posted by: selam on October 9, 2009 7:54pm

WOW!
First, good job to Ramos and Stroud for taking initiative!

Second - I’m surprised the police dept doesn’t have anyone to clean after crime scenes! Do you mean crime scenes in private residencies, or anywhere? Is it a budget issue, or…? If it’s a budget issue, why not organize willing volunteers (medical professionals can be probably tolerate this more than I can)

Third - I’m surprised that the absentee landlords don’t have a backup/local contact. Oh, wait. I’m not. I mean I really feel bad for the resident with kids, but I would use those backstairs, with candles or flashlights or something if it’s too traumatizing to clean.

I feel like there were so many points in time this could have been resolved, but like HMMM mentioned above, someone needs to step up!!

posted by: krenay on October 9, 2009 8:45pm

In response to Hmmmm——we the neighbors could not go into someone elses home and take it upon ourselves to clean an inside hallway. Now had the blood been on the porch I personally would not have taken any issue with bleaching and cleansing the area. Alderwoman Edwards nor the other concerned neighbors did not have access to the said premises if we had believe me we would have taken charge and initiated a clean up. I personally thought their was some kind of crime scene clean up crew——I commend THE Gentlemen that came and cleaned up the property…

posted by: Chatham Square Resident on October 9, 2009 9:06pm

I’m so proud of Rafael and his commitment and proud to call him a neighbor and a friend.

That said, I agree with “Hmmm…” I am a renter, and I would’ve cleaned up the aftermath of this incident MYSELF, especially if it meant preventing my children from having to think about and relive this tragedy for two full days, because they had to walk around a drying pool of blood.

As for the “several neighbors said they thought the victim�s family should be responsible,” shame on you. Why didn’t YOU step in to help? These people are dealing with the violent death of someone they love. I know my neighbors and any number of other people in my community would drop everything to help one another out in this sort of situation.

I am disgusted and saddened by the whole thing.

posted by: Fedupwithliberals on October 10, 2009 6:45am

Maybe the city should add an additional tax on property owners to fund a new department responsible for cleaning up crime scenes!

posted by: urban ed on October 10, 2009 10:24am

Thank-you Raphael.

posted by: for safe city on October 10, 2009 10:45am

I think it had to be done before the childern returned home from school, and the fact that it was the friday of a long weekend so they would have had to wait another 4 days any other way outside of the owner hireing someone to do clean.
I hope that the childern who live there
have a good long Hoilday Weekend.
Thanks City, LCI

posted by: robn on October 10, 2009 11:18am

Although incautious about blood Rafael Ramos seems like a nice guy…he should send a bill to the owner. I agree with HMMM that the Alderwoman could probably have asked some neighborS, including the REMAINING tenant for help cleaning up.

posted by: Peter Stein on October 10, 2009 2:32pm

I think what has been overlooked in most of these comments (Volvo excepted) is that we are talking about a very dangerous situation. Cleaning up blood is a serious matter and should NOT be attempted by the neighbors or anyone else not trained in how to clean up large quantities of blood. God forbid they are not careful enough, they could end up with a serious/fatal disease, which would serve nobody well. For my part, I would have thought the city’s health department would be the proper place to call. But I think this article and the discussion raise really good questions about the proper protocol for dealing with hazardous situations like this.

posted by: William Kurtz on October 10, 2009 4:29pm

If it’s a common hallway, it’s really the property owner’s responsibility to clean it up; I’ve shoveled snow at places where I’ve rented before, but asking tenants to clean up blood after a murder is really a bit much. It sounds like the alderwoman took a good course of action; with the landlord out of reach and no emergency maintenance contact available, another one would have been for the building’s tenants to call a professional service, pay the bill, then deduct the total from the next month’s rent. I believe that’s entirely legal.

posted by: anonymous one on October 10, 2009 5:24pm

Why would some even write a article about ‘cleaning up blood ?’ . hello…. Theres a young man eho is was just killed. how about you write an article in regards to ‘where is the killer ?’ I knew the victim and his family. This crime sickens and hurts me and quite honestly makes me afraid for my children safety. I wish i knew the blood was their, I would have cleaned it up. This society is so twisted.. A young man with a promising future and a whole life before him is murdered senselessly and all you have to focus on is the blood that is left.

Why is it that the Elm City with all it’s greatness, Yale University and so forth and so on doesnt have a crime scence clean up team??? Was it because he was a young black youth? Did they not clean up the young girls remains who was murdered at Yale a few weeks ago.

and the neighbors…. Did anyone see anything when Maurice was shot ? How about we find who did this?

posted by: Beaver Hill Resident on October 10, 2009 5:25pm

Thank you, Peter, for pointing out the dangers of well-meaning people trying to clean up blood. The City of New Haven should have some protocol dealing with these situations. Why should it be the job of the alders and nearby residents to organize the clean-up of blood after a murder? The police should notify the proper authorities after this kind of bloodshed. But who are the proper authorities? No one seems to know.

posted by: bobbi on October 10, 2009 8:05pm

good job ramos…..how did you discard the dirty water ? can’t just throw it away in drain or sewers….

posted by: Edward_H on October 11, 2009 5:24pm

anonymous one

Why is it that the Elm City with all it’s greatness, Yale University and so forth and so on doesnt have a crime scence clean up team???

What city do you know of that has a crime clean up team? The responsibility for cleaning up the property falls to the property owner. This is true all over the U.S. not just in CT. Cleaning up remains is nasty business but there are companies all over the country that specialize in this type of work. Sometimes insurance will pay for it.

Was it because he was a young black youth? Did they not clean up the young girls remains who was murdered at Yale a few weeks ago.

No need to play the race card. The coroner is usually responsible for transporting/removing dead bodies as they did in the Yale case. It is not their job to clean up bodily fluids. If there was a bloody murder scene at Yale then the University would be responsible for cleaning it after the police have collected any evidence they might need.

posted by: Paul Wessel on October 11, 2009 6:53pm

Hats off to Mark and Rafael, both wonderful and committed people. If there was ever a case of “it’s not my job,” this was certainly it. City employees doing this kind of work should be properly trained and take proper precautions. (Remember the movie “Sunshine Cleaning?”) Or outside contractors should be called in to do it. In either case, there should be some due process of making the demand on the landlord if they fail to comply, the City should make sure the work is done AND lay the cost on the property owner. The property owner either pays up or the city puts a lien on the property for the cost. The City does it all the time.

posted by: tb on October 12, 2009 12:00am

Hi I am the 3rd flr tenant of 128 sheffield and I first want to say thank you to alderwoman alfreda edwards,neighbors and rafael for helping with the clean up of the crime scene. For those of you who have something to say about the cleanup, all I can say is you don’t know how it feels until you are in my shoes. A woman who has small children under 10 and is also 6 months pregnant who had to deal with the killing the aftermath of the killing and explaining the situation to the kids, on top of reassuring them that everything will be ok and in reality everything won’t be ok.it’s been a hard week for my kids and coming home on Friday to the hallway being cleaned really touched my heart. Walking through a dark driveway and back porch was not an option for me and my children especially not knowing anything about the victim or why he was killed.so either way it was traumatizing for my kids.cleaning up the blood was not an option for me being 6 months pregnant I wasn’t going to expose me or my unborn child to anything hazardous so thanx to everyone for their part in cleaning my hallway and special shout out goes to the victim’s family may god help them get through this rough time god bless!

posted by: shaking my head. on October 12, 2009 2:12am

love the memorial with a half smoked joint next to it….really nice. I would say I’m amazed, but unfortunately, i’m not…..

posted by: Fedupwithliberals on October 12, 2009 9:11am

SHAKING MY HEAD

I’m amazed that it was there long enough for the picture to be taken!

posted by: Volvo on October 12, 2009 11:05am

Hey Oh please,

Sorry to take so long for the response, just got back from leaf peeping up at the country house. But, you missed the point entirely, I’m not saying it wasn’t admirable, I’m not saying it wasn’t necessary. I’m saying this type of clean up is hazardous and shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of some untrained volunteer. There SHOULD be a TRAINED city staff team that handles this type of clean up event and it should be dealt with immediately after the forensic teams say they are finished.

posted by: Mister Jones on October 12, 2009 11:44am

Landlord’s responsibility, plain and simple. He should have hired a trained biohazard service to clean it up, but that would have cost a small fortune up front, even if covered by insurance. That’s why it was not likely a viable option for the tenants to pay for it—and deducting it from rent? Most leases say you can’t do that.

But the landlord is MIA, apparently with no one minding the store in his absence. Maybe it’s just as well, because if he brought in untrained laborers to clean it, they may have made matters worse. So it’s good that LCI staff took care of this.

BTW for public hazards the Fire Department typically responds, like for fluid cleanup after car accidents. Not an option on private property.

posted by: William Kurtz on October 12, 2009 12:24pm

The lease may say you can’t do that, but the law says otherwise, although giving the appropriate amount of written notice might have been an obstacle. I don’t know whether the presence of a clear and immediate biohazard changes those requirements. It would be interesting to hear the professional opinion of an expert on housing law, but hopefully it’s not the kind of situation that will repeat itself.

http://lawdigest.uslegal.com/landlord-tenant/summary-of-residential-landlord-tenant-law/906/

posted by: For Safe City on October 12, 2009 5:02pm

To all of the above, Its done now ...... put you money where your mouth is and give to a local youth charity that provides alternatives for youth rather then the streets. Or volunteer at the schools or youth organizations that work with youth.
or shut up and wait for next issuse to COME UP WHERE ALL YOU GOING TO DO IS COMMENT. ALSO THERE WAS NO JOINT IN MEMORIAL THAT WAS A PLASTIC cigar tip.

posted by: steve ross, human on October 13, 2009 11:03am

“ALSO THERE WAS NO JOINT IN MEMORIAL THAT WAS A PLASTIC cigar tip.”

For Safe,

I understand why you did, but you don’t need to explain anything to the likes of Shaking My Head and FedUp. ...

posted by: his sister on October 30, 2009 4:54pm

okay so its gonna b a little hard for me ta write this but in regards ta ma brother i feel as though his remainders shouldnt hve been left there..in fact he should not be off this earth rite now..but everything happeneds for a reason and only the good dies young..i dnt understand y the lady had ta come home and walk throw a pool of blood..thts just nasty!!i thank mr.Ramos for taking the time out ta do something like this..i mean in all honesty there should be no doubt in who should of cleaned it up..but hey..well i just say thanks ta everybody thts keeping me and ma family in there prayers..i love u scooby..sorry ta say but u experinced it all..{R.I.P big bro}

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