Paul Bass File Photo
Angelo Reyes.
The fire department and Coast Guard fished an alleged burglar out of the Quinnipiac River — after a prominent Fair Haven developer chased him from the scene of the crime.
The rescue took place early Monday, shortly after midnight.
But the incident began more than two hours earlier.
At that time a family party was breaking up at the Lexington Avenue home of Angelo Reyes, a businessman who has rebuilt many properties in Fair Haven.
About 40 to 50 family members were at his house, Reyes said. They were outside.
Reyes said he returned to the house and saw a man “running around” inside, “trying to get out.” Reyes went in.
“He had something in his hand. He reached at me,” Reyes recalled later on Monday. “I recognized him not to be from the party.”
Reyes said he held on to the man and “questioned who the hell is he. He starts saying, ‘I just came in throughout he back door. I’m going out.’” The alleged burglar said his girlfriend lives next door to Reyes.
Family members called the cops. Reyes got worried: He has his own felony arson case currently in federal court. He didn’t want to get in new trouble. So he let the suspect go, figuring the cops would get him, he said. He said the suspect left behind a silver iPod (the object in his hand) and a bag full of pilfered objects including jewelry, cash, and a Nintendo Wii.
Seven cop cars quickly arrived on the scene. The family gave a description of the suspect.
Two hours later, around midnight, a neighbor told Reyes he saw the suspect back on the property crouching in the bushes, according to Reyes. Reyes approached him; the man fled. A foot chase ensued down Clifton Street, across the Quinnipiac River. Other family members followed in cars.
Reyes said the man went behind some condos and jumped in the river. Reyes went to the bank but didn’t jump in after him. The man saw Reyes and decided not to return to shore, Reyes said.
At that point, “the tide took him, under the bridge. We followed. That’s when the police came.”
The police contacted the fire department, according to Assistant Chief Ralph Black.
When members of Squad 1 and Truck 3 arrived on scene, they found the suspect holding on to a pylon under the bridge, Black said. He said four firefighters — Tom Fitzgerald,Lt. Robert Ortiz, Isaiah Miranda, and Scott Longyear, son of Fire Commissioner George Longyear — went down along with some police officers. The firefighters, wearing cold-water rescue suits, reached into the water and pulled up the suspect “onto a trestle area under the bridge,” Black said.
The police handcuffed the suspect. It would have been hard to bring him back up to the bridge, Black said. So the Coast Guard came by with a boat to get the suspect back to land.
The cops arrested the man — who’s 23 and lives on Clinton Avenue — and then took him to the hospital for treatment, while keeping him under guard, according to mayoral spokesman Adam Joseph.
Police charged the man with second-degree burglary and with threatening a police officer, Joseph said.
What a shame that this is a criminal chasing a criminal. After all Reyes has done for a community and he will be remembered for only the criminal activity he was engaged in.