Crip: Take Smith & Wesson. Kill My Baby Mom

Casper would have ​“blown her head off completely, or at least partially off.” But when he pulled the trigger, he discovered the chamber was empty.

So Casper later told the police.

That gave the woman — QB’s girlfriend — time to run. Casper chased and started firing.

He’d caught her by surprise. She knew he meant to kill her. When a bullet struck her thigh, she collapsed in the stairwell and played for dead.

Casper fled.

Thus began an intricate attempted-murder case that preoccupied detectives for a week until they pieced it together and made two arrests.

The full story is only now beginning to unfold. Police last week offered an official summary of the case, startling enough: A New Haven man allegedly hired a New Milford man to shoot dead the mother of three of his children while the New Haven man sat outside in the car with them. The New Milford man shot the woman in the thigh. He admitted the shooting to an acquaintance in New Milford, who called New Haven cops. New Milford police later picked up the gunman, and New Haven cops tracked down the New Haven man.

It turns out there’s much more to the story, a web of alleged intrigue and callousness that startled even experienced investigators.

“This had so many twists and turns, said Detective Sgt. Ron Perry. ​“It kept evolving, real fast.” He could cite only one other case he’d worked on that proved as wrenching and complex: the 2011 triple-murder arson in Fair Haven.

New details emerge from an arrest warrant affidavit on file in Superior Court as well as conversations with cops who have worked the case.

Crip 2 Crip

The shooting took place inside a County Street apartment building around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday Jan. 31.

A 30-year-old alleged Grape Street Crips gang member, nicknamed ​“QB,” allegedly set up the shooting, according to the warrant affidavit written by Detective Walter Flegler.

He had arranged it with a 24-year-old New Milford man nicknamed ​“Casper.” Casper identified himself as a Crip as well. According to the affidavit, QB approached him at a Crips meeting last Oct. 3 about killing his girlfriend — his ​“baby mom”: “‘QB’ told [Casper] that he wanted her killed because she was trying to put him in jail. [Casper] told ​‘QB’ to get a gun and he [Casper] will take care of it,” according to Flegler’s affidavit.

They met again in late January along with a fellow Crip known as ​“Pop Latti,” who provided a chrome Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun with black hand grips, Casper told police.

On Jan. 31, QB and Casper drove around town in QB’s black Chrysler 300 along with the girlfriend, who’s 27, and her and QB’s three children, a 2‑year-old boy and 4- and 7‑year-old girls. They ​“dropped the ​‘baby mom’ off at her job in North Branford. After dropping her off, ​‘QB,’ [Casper] and the three children went to County Street where the ​‘baby mom’ lived.”

The kids were told to stay in the car. QB and Casper went upstairs to the apartment so Casper could ​“get a lay of the interior of the apartment.” QB broke a door to ​“make it look like a robbery for after [Casper] shot her.’”

They drove to Lamberton Street, to the home of QB’s wife, with whom he also has kids. QB told Casper to leave his cellphone there, according to the affidavit, and handed Casper the Smith & Wesson.

Back outside QB returned to the Chrysler to eventually pick up his girlfriend from work at 7 p.m. Casper hopped into QB’s wife’s silver Hyundai and headed to County Street to lay in wait in the apartment.

QB later pulled up with his girlfriend and her kids in tow. He asked the girlfriend to go upstairs and get some Pampers. He honked three times.

The girlfriend went upstairs. Moments later, one of her daughters got out of the car and started to follow her. QB grabbed the girl before she could reach the apartment and brought her back to the car.

The girlfriend entered her second-floor apartment, then the bedroom. She made eye contact with Casper. Casper put the gun to her face. She screamed. He pulled the trigger.

“The gun didn’t fire because a round wasn’t chambered,” he later told detectives, according to the affidavit. “[I]f the gun fired it would have ​‘blown her head completely off or at least partially off.’”

The girlfriend headed for the stairwell and ran down. Casper followed, firing. One of the bullets hit her and lodged in her right thigh. She collapsed to the ground.

She later told detectives that she thought she had one chance to survive: pretend she was dead.

It worked. Believing he’d killed her, Casper fled out the house’s back door. He ​“scaled several fences,” hopped into the Hyundai parked on Orchard, and drove to Elm Street, where QB’s mother lived. He gave QB’s mother ​“the gun and gloves and clothes he wore during the shooting,” he later reported to detectives.

Next stop: QB’s house on Lamberton Street in the Hill. Casper spent hours there.

Meanwhile, police arrived at the scene of the County Street shooting. They found the girlfriend laying on the front porch, on her stomach. She was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital’s emergency room. Police encountered QB, who appeared distraught and urged them to find the shooter. Police contacted Yale Child Study Center to help them care for the three children, as the department does routinely at trauma scenes.

Detective Perry (pictured) was assigned to stay with the children at the scene. The youngest boy, the 2‑year-old, was confused by the upsetting events; he fixed on how the grown-ups had promised to take the kids to a movie.

“He was sniffling; he could barely get it out,” Perry said. ​“I made them a promise: I would make sure they get to see the movie.”

A Break, In New Milford

Later QB met up with Casper back on Lamberton Street. Casper piled into a car with QB, QB’s wife, QB’s brother, and QB’s brother’s wife. They took him home to New Milford. QB asked him to obtain a new barrel for the Smith & Wesson ​“because he wanted to keep the gun,” according to the affidavit.

Casper went to the home of an acquaintance in New Milford. He asked to stay over. She said no, but he could hang out a while while he waited for a friend to pick him up.

“Hopping” around the apartment, he told his acquaintance he’d been injured while running after ​“I shot this bitch,” she later told detectives.

Whom did he shoot? the woman asked.

“Some bitch … Word to Crip, Word to Grape Street, I had to do it for one of my homies.”

After Casper left with his friend, the woman noticed $180 in cash missing from a kitchen drawer. She also found Casper’s cell phone; he’d left it behind. She allegedly searched for Casper’s friend’s number to try to retrieve her $180. She checked out his Facebook account. She ​“saw a picture of [Casper]‘s gang members, an inquiry to a judicial system court case look-up page, and a New Haven Register story about a woman being shot in New Haven,” according to the affidavit.

She contacted police. New Haven Detectives Elisa Tuozzoli and Brian DiAnge came to interview her. They confirmed Casper’s identity as that of a man with an active warrant for violating probation.

They informed New Milford cops, who went looking for Casper. The New Milford cops subsequently saw two men engaged in an apparent attempted burglary. It was Casper and his friend.

Casper was now in police custody. New Haven Sgt. John Healy and Officer Mastropetre interviewed him at the New Milford Police Department.

Informed of the story, detectives proceeded to collect enough evidence to obtain warrants for both Casper’s and QB’s arrests in connection with the County Street shooting. They picked up QB in the Hill early on the Sunday morning a week after the shooting. They charged him with conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree and conspiracy to commit home invasion. They charged Casper with assault in the first degree, unlawful discharge of a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm, home invasion, and conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree and home invasion.

QB subsequently confessed to the crime in an interview, according to detectives. He remains behind bars on $1 million bond; he has yet to enter a plea in court.

The girlfriend, meanwhile, has been released from the hospital. She is recuperating at the home of a relative, according to police.

After Perry told the kids’ story at last week’s Compstat meeting at police headquarters, colleagues responded with $318 in donations. ​“These cases,” said Lt. Otoniel Reyes, the police department’s head of major crimes, ​“become personal” for his detectives.

Perry opened an account at the credit union. He met with the children and their grandfather this week and arranged to hand over a check. That money, Perry said, will give the family some needed help — and enable the kids to go the movies.