Paul Bass Photo
The man lurking under the bridge pressed his body up against a concrete wall.
A jogger, out on a run with his dog Saturday afternoon, didn’t notice the man at first.
It was around 3:50. The jogger was on his regular route on the pedestrian road that cuts through Edgewood Park. Heading alongside the West River toward the duck pond and Chapel Street, he entered the underpass below the Edgewood Avenue bridge, which is supported by arched steel-reinforced concrete ribs.
Once under the bridge, the jogger saw the man pressed up against one of the arched ribs.
The sun had come out and the temperatures warmed up; most people in the park had dispensed of winter gear. This man had on a ski cap pulled down. Underneath his coat he had the collar of a turtleneck pulled up to conceal part of his face.
The jogger made eye contact with the man. “Hey,” he asked. “What’s up?”
The man in the ski cap said nothing. He glared. He didn’t move.
The jogger kept moving. He knew that some disturbing attacks have occurred on joggers and cyclists in Edgewood Park over the past year. Some involved teens on bikes. The jogger hadn’t remembered that one attack occurred at this very spot under the bridge: A man hiding under the underpass jumped out to attack a 37-year-old woman cycling home from work. He pulled out a gun, then made off with her bike. (Read about that here.)
After he exited the park, the jogger ran into two friends from the neighborhood, my wife Carole and me, out for a Sabbath afternoon stroll, without cell phones. He stopped to ask for advice: Should he call 911?
On the one hand, he believed a crime would soon occur. The man was clearly trying to make himself invisible.
On the other hand, he had two reservations.
First, the man under the bridge was black. The jogger, who’s white, worried he was racially profiling.
Second, the jogger has a libertarian streak. He believes “people be allowed to hang out and loiter” in a park without having the cops called on them.
Our advice: Call the cops.
He took the advice. He jogged home, called 911.
Maybe 20 minutes later we arrived at the bridge — just in time to see three New Haven cops escort the man out of the underpass and up the stairs to Edgewood Avenue.
Sgt. Renee Forte, Westville’s top cop, later related the rest of the story: The officers checked to see if the man, who is 46 years old and lives in New Haven, had any outstanding warrants. He did not. They asked why he was standing under the bridge. “He claimed that he was cutting through the park and ducked back there because he wanted to urinate.” Also, the police had been told by the 911 dispatcher that the call had concerned a man with a ski mask over his face; he had a knit cap, not a ski mask. Without any evidence that he had in fact urinated, the officers had no grounds for an arrest. They ordered the man to leave the area and stay out of the park. He complied.
Forte said “it’s very possible that the dispatcher” didn’t ask for enough information from the jogger. “That’s a problem we’ve been having.” (Judge for yourself: Click here to read the transcript of the 911 call.)
Following a call from the Independent Monday, Lt. Jeff Hoffman, who oversees patrol, checked the man’s record. “The subject has an extensive out-of-state criminal history,” Hoffman subsequently reported. “Larceny, narcotics, one assault. No robberies.” Hoffman said both Forte and the detective division planned to follow up on the incident.
Forte said the jogger was right to call 911. Officers were able to respond quickly and remove the man from the park. What do you think? Register your “True Vote” above and feel free to comment below.
Maybe using the "Polce Non-Emergency Number" would have been more appropriate.....