Domestic Dispute, 3 Crashes Tied To Arson

A domestic dispute preceded a fire, allegedly started by a 38-year-old man, that left 10 people homeless — and the man allegedly ended up injuring people in three separate car crashes as he fled from police.

Those details are reported in two separate reports filed last Thursday by New Haven Police Officer Michael Valente.

The reports are included in the arrest warrant files for two sets of charges that city police have brought against a 38-year-old local man who allegedly set fire to a two-family house at 1226 Whalley Ave. on July 15.

The fire caused no injuries, but did displace seven adults, three children, and three pets, and did result in exterior damage to the two-and-a-half story home.

Police caught up with the suspect later that same day and have charged him with a host of offenses—including two felony counts of first-degree arson, two felony counts of risk of injury to a child, one felony account of attempt to commit assault, one felony count of attempt to commit burglary, and two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment.

The suspect has not yet pleaded guilty or innocent to any of the charges, and is currently being detained on $150,000 bond in each of the two cases.

He has previously been found guilty of twice driving under the influence, and of second-degree criminal trespassing, according to the state criminal court database.

While Valente’s two arrest warrant reports don’t necessarily answer the question of how this man allegedly caused such extensive fire damage to 1226 Whalley Ave. that 10 tenants had to be emergency evacuated, they do shine a light on why he may have acted in the way police believe he did, the fear he instilled in those living in the house, and the trail of innocent, injured motorists he left in his wake as he fled the police.

They also provide yet another example of violence against women stemming from domestic disputes—a trend that has been on the rise during the pandemic.

“Stop Him! That’s Him!”

Valente’s first arrest warrant report indicates that city police were dispatched to 1226 Whalley Ave. at around 9:19 a.m. last Thursday for the report of a fire. City firefighters and an American Medical Response ambulance were already on the scene when city police arrived.

The fire scene involved two adjacent two-story homes, Valente wrote: 1222 Whalley and 1226 Whalley.

Valente was the first officer on the scene. As city firefighters worked to put out the fire, Valente set up traffic points at Whalley and Dayton Street and Whalley and West Prospect Street.

As he got out of his cruiser, Valente wrote, a group of individuals ​“were screaming at me to get my attention and pointing toward” a man who was getting into a light grey Ford sedan.

“The group was yelling something to the extent of, ​‘Stop him! That’s him!’” Valente wrote.

The officer followed the suspect’s vehicle with his police cruiser’s lights and sirens on.

The suspect drove east on Whalley, turned right onto Dayton Street, then right onto Fairfield Street.

Valente wrote that he could see the suspect in the driver’s side mirror of the Ford, ​“and his eyes appeared to be wide and he seemed to be looking around frantically. He was possibly under the influence of illegal drugs/narcotics. I could see him looking at my Police cruiser in the side view mirror multiple times.”

Even though Valente had his cruiser’s lights and sirens on, the suspect didn’t stop his car. Instead, he kept driving on Fairfield, then turned onto West Prospect Street, and stopped at the stop light at West Prospect and Whalley.

Officers yelled to the man to stop the vehicle and step out, Valente wrote. But the man disregarded those orders, turned left on Whalley, and continued westbound, ​“still driving the speed limit but continuing not to pull over.”

City police Sgt. Louis DeCrescenzo then advised the officers to stop their pursuit of the vehicle. The Ford was last seen driving west on Fountain Street toward Woodbridge.

“More Fire”

Back at the scene of the fire, Valente interviewed two witnesses at 1226 Whalley.

The first interviewee said that she was on the building’s first floor when she smelled smoke. She looked around and noticed that the exterior air conditioning unit was on fire.

She and an upstairs neighbor then worked to put the air conditioner fire out.

As the two female tenants finished putting out that fire, they saw a man nearby holding a bottle of lighter fluid.

The first witness recognized him as a resident of 1222 Whalley next door. She told police that that man had recently been in a rehabilitation facility for using illegal drugs.

That groundfloor tenant saw the man ​“squirt a white towel or shirt with a bottle of lighter fluid, light it on fire, and said something to the extent of, ​‘Have fire’ or ​‘More fire.’”

He allegedly then threw the blazing cloth at the groundfloor tenant, ​“which she said that she had to jump out of the way or else she would have been burned by it. She said she believed that he intentionally threw it at her in an attempt to burn her.”

That groundfloor tenant then called 911 and followed the man as he ran toward Whalley Avenue and got into a light grey sedan. The groundfloor tenant said she was uninjured, and that she would be able to identify her neighbor as the suspect.

Valente noticed damage to the rear window of the groundfloor tenant’s room, as well as a white, Kingsford bottle of lighter fluid near it. City firefighters also said there was a red gas can in the groundfloor tenant’s kitchen, ​“which she did not believe was there prior to today’s incident.”

The second witness, meanwhile, said she saw smoke outside of the groundfloor tenant’s room and went downstairs to make sure she was OK. She too saw the air conditioning unit on fire and helped her downstairs neighbor put out the blaze.

After the fire was extinguished, she saw the man whom she also identified as the groundfloor tenant of 1222 Whalley Ave. next door. He was holding a bottle of Kingsford lighter fluid, sprayed the fluid on some type of white cloth, lit the cloth, and then ​“threw the cloth inside of the home, which almost burned” the groundfloor tenant.

Valente wrote that city police Det. Joe Aurora then made contact with 1222 Whalley’s landlord, who told police that he had found a secondary fire located at the rear of 1222 Whalley with a bottle of lighter fluid nearby.

Valente checked the registration of the Ford sedan that had fled the scene, and found that it was registered to the same groundfloor resident of 1222 Whalley identified by both of the witnesses at 1226 Whalley.

Wife: History Of Domestic Violence

Later that morning after police had processed the scene of the fire, another woman arrived on the scene and told officers that she was legally married to the suspect but was in the process of getting a divorce.

She said that she and the suspect ​“have had numerous domestic violence incidents in the past, most of which have not been reported to Police.” One such incident occurred in April, she said, when the suspect was ​“under the influence of illegal drugs and put a knife to [her] throat.”

She told police that the man had stayed with her the previous night. In the morning, she woke up with him on top of her and it appeared that he wanted to have sex, she said. She wanted him to leave, and he did. Later that morning, she saw him push in the air conditioning unit on the first floor and attempt to enter the home, but was unable to. He then left the property. She told police that she did not see witness her husband start a fire at either 1222 Whalley or 1226 Whalley.

Since there were children at home at the time of the domestic dispute, police connected the wife with Yale Child Studies. The wife told police that her husband drove a 2005 grey Ford sedan. Valente observed damage to the rear walls of her home on the first floor.

She also told police that the man might be staying with family in Stratford or Bridgeport.

Valente then put out a BOLO (be-on-the-lookout alert) to Stratford and Bridgeport police for the man for a suite of charges related to the fire, including arson, reckless endangerment, criminal attempt to assault, and risk of injury to a minor.

Low-Speed Chase Leads To 3 Crashes, Injuries

At around 3:30 that same afternoon, Valente was stationed in a parked police cruiser on Whalley Avenue by the scene of the morning’s fire when he saw a light grey Ford sedan drive east toward Dayton Street.

“As the vehicle passed by my cruiser, I had a clear and unobstructed view of the driver who I immediately recognized” as the man accused of setting the fire.

“He looked directly at me while I was sitting in my Police cruiser, and he appeared exactly the same as his DMV driver’s license picture.”

So Valentine radioed in to Dispatch that he would be attempting to conduct a motor vehicle stop on the Ford, and then turned on his body camera.

Valentine activated his cruiser’s lights and sirens but, for the second time that day, the suspect did not stop his vehicle, according to the report.

Instead, the suspect allegedly led the police officer on a low-speed chase — within the speed limit, at roughly 20 miles per hour — during which he allegedly drove through stop signs and stop lights, swerved around vehicles, crashed into three different cars and injured three different sets of drivers and passengers, and then ultimately crashed into a tree.

The first crash came after the man drive through a stop sign at West Prospect and Fountain Streets. There, a SUV struck the man’s vehicle. The driver of that SUV suffered minor cuts to his hand, the front seat passenger was evaluated for chest pains due to the airbags being deployed, and the back seat passenger was uninjured. The SUV itself sustained heavy damage to the front bumper.

The second crash came soon after the suspect ran through the red light at Fountain Street and Vista Terrace. Coming up on traffic on Fountain near McKinley Avenue, the suspect attempted to drive his car up onto the sidewalk. In so doing, he sideswiped a vehicle near the intersection of Fountain and McKninley. The driver of that vehicle said his head was hurt, and later drove himself to the hospital.

The third crash came as the suspect continued driving east on Fountain and attempted to pass yet another vehicle on the right in the single lane of travel. The suspect’s vehicle hit that car. The driver of the latter said his head was sore after the crash. He was later transported to the hospital by an ambulance.

The suspect fled this third crash scene by again driving up onto the sidewalk on Fountain Street. This time, he drove into a tree near Fountain and Harrison Streets, and his car got stuck.

Pepper Sprayed Twice; Burn Mark On Wrist; ​“He Seemed Confused”

Not knowing if the man was under the influence, suffering from a mental health episode, and potentially armed, Valente unholstered his department-issued handgun and pointed it at the man while ordering him to keep his hands up.

The man ​“continued to reach toward something near the center console of the vehicle,” Valente wrote.

“I was worried that he may be reaching for a weapon or some type of incendiary device/tool, so I used my department issued OC spray and administered about a one second burst to” the suspect’s face.

After getting pepper sprayed to the face, the suspect stopped reaching toward the center console and held his hands to his eyes.

While the man was covering his eyes, Valente removed the keys from the car’s ignition so he could not drive away and hurt anyone else.

Then the man started reaching toward the center console against as the Valente moved toward the passenger’s side of the car so, for the second time, Valente pepper sprayed him in the face.

Two fellow officers then arrived on scene, and the three were able to remove the man from his vehicle and place him in handcuffs without further incident.

“He seemed confused and asked Officers what he did to be put in handcuffs,” Valente wrote. ​“He did not make any claim of being injured nor did he have any apparent signs of injury to him caused from the motor vehicle accidents.

“He did have what appeared to be a burn mark to his right wrist that was possibly due to the arson incident” from earlier in the morning.

An ambulance later transported the man to Yale New Haven Hospital on York Street.

A subsequent check of the man’s license revealed that it was suspended as of May 11. His vehicle’s registration, meanwhile, was valid. Police towed the car to the city police garage at 710 Sherman Pkwy.