A beat cop spotted a man with a cash register — and helped crack a burglary case at an East Rock corner store.
Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery:
An off-duty beat cop spotted a man with a cash register — and helped crack a burglary case at an East Rock corner store.
Officer Milton DeJesus was on his way home at 12:17 a.m. Friday when he saw a suspicious man outside Gloria’s Grocery at 607 East St. in East Rock. The man was carrying a cash register. DeJesus stopped to investigate. A window of the corner store was broken and a cash register was missing. He called to report the incident.
The officer’s keen observation led to a dramatic manhunt by a team of state, city and Yale cops.
The man fled toward James and State Street, near the exit ramp for Exit 5 on I‑91. Two fellow cops, Dennis Mastriano and Lisa Wexler, “trapped” the suspect in the area by blocking off the area with their cruisers. The fled into the bushes by the highway, by the Mill River. State police came after him with dogs and “began to flush the subject out of the brush,” Avery said.
The suspect jumped into the river. An off-duty Yale cop who was driving on I‑91 spotted the wet man emerging from the drink.
The Yale cop and New Haven cops finally caught up with the man. They charged the suspect, a 26-year-old man from Liberty Street in the Hill, with burglary and other charges.
When cops later backtracked to look at the scene of the burglary, they found a trail of cash register receipt tape leading right from Gloria’s Grocery to the dead end of Mill River Street, where the cash register was found.
Shooting Suspect Charged
A 17-year-old man was arrested Wednesday in connection to a Dec. 14 shooting at 1361 Quinnipiac Ave. Detective Craig Dixon investigated the case and secured an arrest warrant Wednesday. The teen was charged with: first-degree assault, unlawful discharge of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, first-degree reckless endangerment, and criminal attempt at first-degree robbery.
In other news, the city narcotics squad conducted two drug raids in Newhallville Thursday. At 29 Lilac St., cops seized cocaine and made two arrests. At 283 Munson St., cops grabbed some marijuana and made two more arrests.
Crime Map
Click here for a list of crimes on Feb. 24. Click on the image below to see those crimes placed on a city-wide map.
For block-by-block year-to-date crime info, and daily crime maps, check the Independent’s crime log.
