Police arrested two men who allegedly terrorized people riding bikes, and separately arrested a man allegedly terrorizing people while riding a motor scooter.
Both incidents occurred Saturday. Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman:
The first incident occurred between 3 and 3:30 a.m. between Division and Thompson streets on the Farmington Canal Trail.
Two men were hiding in shrubs. They jumped out to push two passing cyclists — a 33-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man — off their bikes. One of the attackers “indicated” he had a gun and threatened to shoot the victims “if they tried running.” The woman handed over a Disney book bag containing cash and her cellular phone. The attackers punched the male victim int eh face and took “three cellular phones from him.”
The robbers fled. The male victim followed to “a rear yard on Division Street.” The woman called police. The man gave cops the attackers’ description. Three Yale cops saw one of the alleged attackers near “back on the trail.” They chased him 50 yards and tackled him, and handcuffed him. The victims made an identification, so police charged the man, who lives in New Haven and is 22 years old, with robbery, larceny and assault charges. His alleged accomplice remains at large.
The second incident occurred shortly after noon Saturday, also near Division Street. Officers Matthew Abbate and Casey O’Brien saw a 28-year-old man “recklessly operating a motor scooter, passing through traffic and driving the wrong way on a one-way street.”
They then saw him “driving down the sidewalk,” stopping to pick up a passenger, then pulling away again.
O’Brien activated his cruiser’s siren. The scooter’s riders turned around. Abbate recognized one of them — “a 17-year-old wanted in connection with a robbery.” The scooter drive kept riding away. O’Brien drove his cruiser past him, then used it to block a Shelton Avenue sidewalk in his path.
The scooter driver “lost control of the scooter just enough to loose his passenger” — “and his handgun. The gun, which turned out to be a ‘Beeman P17 BB gun,’ was recovered. His passenger wasn’t.”
The man drove away again. Officer Mark Taylor, stationed on Broadway, saw him there and chased on foot. “For some reason,” the driver then “abandoned the scooter.” The chase ensued onto Elm Street, then onto College — where the fleeing man ran right into Officer Mark Foster and Yale
Sgt. Keith Pullen. The man was arrested, his scooter — which turned out to be stolen from Derby — towed away.
It seems modified scooters (to be extra loud) are the new noise nuisance now that dirty bikes are done.