nothin Man Not Murdered | New Haven Independent

Man Not Murdered

The hunt was on. Both cops and armed neighborhood rivals were doing the hunting. The hunt would end with an arrest or, possibly, a homicide.

The hunt, or at least the police side of it, began a week and a half ago.

It began on a Tuesday morning. Top neighborhood cops gathered at the weekly CompStat” meeting on the fourth floor of headquarters were reporting on problems brewing in their districts.

It was Lt. (now Assistant Chief) Thaddeus Reddish’s turn to give the Newhallville/East Rock update. That’s often the longest update. He brought up a 24-year-old man named Alphonzo.

He is going to be the next T.J. Mozell,” Reddish declared, referring to the city’s most recent homicide victim. He is shooting at everyone in the neighborhood. They are now getting together collectively to deal with him.”

Reddish mentioned that his cops had been looking for Alphonzo. Alphonzo was in hiding.

From the back of the room, Sgt. Herb Johnson noted that Alphonzo was already wanted on an outstanding warrant. Since January.

Paul Bass Photo

Esserman (at right) at CompStat: “Get him.”

That caught Chief Dean Esserman’s attention. We’ve had a warrant on him since January? he asked. He said he was worried that Alphonzo would fire a fatal bullet or take one himself.

Put a team together today,” Esserman declared. I don’t care what it takes. I want him arrested this week.”

Get him.

Several of the department’s task forces were called off other investigations. A wanted poster went up in the community. The hunting began. The week went by. Some sightings, but no Alphonzo.

There Is One Of Him”

The outstanding warrant Sgt. Johnson mentioned had been issued after a woman walked into the police station the morning of Jan. 11 to file a complaint.

She said she found Alphonzo, her ex-boyfriend, sitting in her car as she left work at a local school the afternoon before. He had a key to the car.

She was frightened, but got inside the vehicle because she didn’t want [him] to cause a scene and get her fired from her job,” according to a subsequent police report. He drove off. He asked her if she thought he was a joke and accused her of being with another man. … [He] told her he was going to kill her. She stated she began to cry at which time [he] grabbed her by her hair and pulled on her necklace causing her to choke.”

They stopped at a gas station, then at the Stop & Shop at Whalley and Orchard. Walking in, they saw a cop. You better not think of him,” she quoted Alphonzo telling her. There is one of him and I will fuck you up.”

She begged her to take her home afterwards, according to the report. He did, and left with the car. The next morning she saw the car outside her house — and , she said, she began getting calls and texts from Alphonzo threatening to kill her. It only takes 30 seconds to snap your neck,” he allegedly told her.

She went to to the police department to file a complaint. An officer called and asked to speak with him at the police station. Alphonzo declined the invitation. You can suck my dick,” he said before hanging up, according to the officer’s report. Alphonzo subsequently agreed to meet with an officer, then didn’t show up, according to the report. A warrant was prepared for his arrest on harassment, breach of peace, threatening, assault and stolen-vehicle charges.

Found

Allan Appel File Photo

Fast forward to Sunday at 11:45 p.m.

The police department’s Street Interdiction Unit was still looking for Alphonzo. Officer Martin Podsiad (pictured) got a tip that Alphonzo was in a house on Lilac Street. Podsiad went to the sidewalk; he saw Alphonzo look out the second floor window of the common hallway,” then run back up to the third floor, according to a subsequent written report. Podsiad, having entered the building, called up to Alphonzo to stop; he did, outside an apartment door.

I noticed that he was in the threshold of the door and I did not know if he had placed any weapons/contraband in the apartment,” Podsiad wrote. Furthermore, I received information that [he] has been recently involved in an exchange of gunfire with other gang members. I drew my firearm, ordered [him] to the second-floor landing of the hallway and told him to life face down.” Alphonzo complied, and was arrested.

His current girlfriend was inside the apartment; she said Alphonzo had been staying there for two weeks. She signed a consent form to allow cops to search the apartment, according to the report. They reported finding a clear sandwich bag containing (2) twenty pink butterfly shaped pills and several broken ones.” They turned out to be Ecstasy. So now he was charged not just with the previous offenses, but with drug possession, too.

But he was alive. And he hadn’t killed anyone.

Alphonzo is no stranger to jail; he received a four-year sentence after a 2005 arrest on firearms and assault charged. He received more charges before this week was through. As he sat in jail on Wednesday morning, held on $100,000 bond and awaiting an April 13 court date, federal and local law enforcement agents swept through town and arrested 11 alleged members of the Grape Street Crips gang charged with running a large-scale” crack distribution ring. Alphonzo was one of the 11. This time he was easy to find.

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