As Bars Let Out, BB Caused Havoc

Another bar fight was turning into a potential brawl — and a dangerous-looking weapon upped the ante.

The bar fight broke out one recent weekend night inside Gotham Citi Cafe on Center Street between Orange and Church.

The weapon involved turned out to be a BB gun, not a ​“real” gun. It looked ​“real” enough to cause panic. And it had the potential to do plenty more harm. 

BB 1

The incident occurred the Saturday before last around 2 a.m., just as Gotham was letting out.

The fight began inside. It involved a young woman, her current boyfriend, and her ex, who also showed up.

It spilled out onto Center Street. An estimated 300 people were on the block. The screaming and shoving spread like a virus through the crowd.

Officers Gabrielle Curtis and Tyler Evans were nearby. They were on bar detail, an extra-duty shift they have worked regularly since September. At first they were assigned the shift. Now they regularly sign up.

It gets crazy when bars get out. But they are up for the work. And they like working together: They became friends back in high school on the Wilbur Cross track team. (Evans was a jumper, Curtis a hurdler.) They remained friends through college (Curtis at University of Rhode Island, Evans at Southern). They landed together at the training academy to fulfill their childhood dreams of becoming law enforcement officers. Evans started calling ​“Gabrielle” ​“Curtis” instead, in keeping with the academy practice; the new practice stuck as they continued their friendship on the force.

They enjoy working together — even at knucklehead witching hour in the bar district. It helps they grew up here. ​“We know a lot of people from New Haven. They give us less problems when they see a familiar face, especially in uniform,” Curtis said.

When the brawls began outside Gotham that evening, Curtis and Evans had already closed Center to car traffic. They do that at closing time when rivers of inebriated young partiers stream into the road to the parking lot. ​“I’d rather a pedestrian not get hit,” said Evans.

Curtis and Evans saw the commotion down the block and rushed toward it. At first it looked like a typical situation in which people needed encouragement to proceed to their cars or into their Ubers to get home.

They slowed down when they saw the crowd part — and a man place what looked like a gun back into his pocket.

“Drop the gun! Get on the ground!” each officer yelled, on instinct.

The 19-year-old boyfriend dropped the gun. He got on the ground. Evans handcuffed him. Curtis removed the weapon.

Others in the crowd resumed shouting and shoving. Officers on nearby downtown patrol arrived to help stop the arguments from escalating.

Evans and Curtis brought the arrestee to a patrol car. It turned out the gun was a BB, one of a current generation of facsimiles that look like the real thing, and still have the power to maim people, not to mention provoke someone else to shoot back.

The arrestee told the officers he is a college student. He told them how the fight started.

“This guy you’re angry at — he could have had a real gun” and pulled it out in response to the BB, Evans remembered telling the detainee.

“A lot of Black juveniles lose their life” over these kind of dumb fights, Curtis told him.

“You sound like my mom right now,” she remembered him responding. She said he was polite, and repeatedly thanked the officers. He was charged with possessing a dangerous weapon. Center Street eventually cleared out and was reopened to through traffic, at least until the next closing time.

BB 2

Justin Julianelle, another officer who joined the force since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, was among the cops who hurried to the Center Street scene to help out that night. He and colleagues were a block away on Chapel, where they had also closed off the block. In that case they were responding to actual gunshots fired by a fleeing suspect. They had just finished collecting the shell casings.

He figured that one incident would be the big problem of the night. When he first heard the radio report of a problem on Center, he figured it was a routine matter. ​“Ty and Gabby are down there. They’ll handle it,” he said.

Then came a more urgent follow-up from Curtis: ​“We’re across from the garage; suspect has a 75,” code for a weapon. 

Julianelle and others rushed to the block to back up the officers and help quell the fledgling brawl.

That now might have been the end of drama for that night, but the next night Julianelle, who’s the grandson of a New Haven cop, found himself responding to another incident involving a problem-causing weapon that looked like a gun.

That incident occurred shortly after midnight. An Uber driver named Nick Firine had parked his Toyota Corolla on Grove Street near Temple waiting for the bars to let out and the calls to come in.

Firine, 36, who picks up ride-sharing customers when he’s not touring as guitarist with the band Bone Church, noticed two young men walk by his car. He didn’t think much of it. He had his engine running as he read an Apple News article on his phone when he heard a rap on the window. The pair had turned back and returned.

Firine opened the window a crack.

“You an Uber driver?” one of the young men asked.

“Yeah, but I’m done for the night,” answered Firine, who prefers to respond to called-in requests.

He also had a sense the person wasn’t looking for a ride, a suspicion heightened by the next question.

“Just give me a ride downtown.”

“Nah,” Firine responded, ​“you’re already downtown.”

“Just give me the fucking car,” the man said. Firine saw he had his hand on the handle of a gun.

Firine hit the gas and took off. He circled downtown streets, stopped a Yale cop on College Street. He was shook up; he was also concerned that the pair might carjack or rob someone else. So he told the Yale cop his story.

The info was conveyed to the New Haven cops, since the block where the incident occurred is technically NHPD turf. Officer Julianelle arrived within minutes. That impressed Firine, who gave a description of the pair, including the alleged gunman’s ​“puffy, shiny” dark winter jacket. Julianelle was impressed with the level of detail, as well as Firine’s demeanor. ​“He was very calm for someone who almost got carjacked at gunpoint.” 

Julianelle radioed in a description of the suspects.

A bit later, plainclothes officers working downtown responded that they had stopped two young men fitting the description outside the Popeye’s on Whalley near Broadway.

Julianelle drove Firine to the scene. Firine remained in the back of the cruiser. Julianelle asked him to look at the suspects. He asked if those were the same people — and he instructed him to think hard about it. To be 100 percent sure.

“You never want to ID the wrong person,” Julianelle said later.

Firine took a hard look. That did look like the gunman. Certainly the same clothing.

But he was only ​“75 – 80 percent” sure, he said. He shared Julianelle’s concern about arrests based on IDs that eventually prove false.

So the police did not arrest the pair for the alleged attempted carjacking. But they did find the alleged weapon. It did look like a gun. It turned out to be a BB gun. The 17-year-old was arrested on a charge of carrying a dangerous weapon. His companion, too, was arrested for carrying a BB gun the cops confiscated.

“I didn’t expect them to find those two kids so fast,” Firine marveled afterwards. ​“They did a great job.”

Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli agreed. ​“This shows that when we do have members of the public that cooperate with us, we can solve crimes quickly,” he added.

Zannelli said that both cases reflected the real dangers BB guns present.

The facsimile weapons have become so sophisticated that, especially at night, ​“there’s no way you can tell them apart” from the deadlier originals, Zannelli said. And BB projectiles ​“can certainly” make someone ​“lose an eye and go blind. It can cause serious physical injury. It could provoke an officer-involved shooting. It can make somebody else believe you have an actual gun. Or somebody else could think you have a gun.” Zannelli added that ​“younger kids” committing robberies ​“who cannot get their hands on actual firearms” use the BB guns instead.

Firine, meanwhile, has shifted to picking up customers outside New haven. Turns out the trips are longer, and pay better.

Previous stories about officers on the beat:

• Shafiq Abdussabur
• Yessennia Agosto
• Craig Alston & Billy White Jr.
• Joseph Aurora
• James Baker
• Lloyd Barrett
• Pat Bengston & Mike Valente
• Elsa Berrios
• Manmeet Bhagtana (Colon)
• Paul Bicki
• Paul Bicki (2)
• Sheree Biros
• Bitang
• Kevin Blanco
• Scott Branfuhr
• Bridget Brosnahan
• Craig Burnett & Orlando Crespo
• Keron Bryce and Steve McMorris
• Keron Bryce and Osvaldo Garcia
• Keron Bryce and Osvaldo Garcia (2)
• Dennis Burgh
• Tyler Camp
• Anthony Campbell
• Darryl Cargill & Matt Wynne
• Elizabeth Chomka & Becky Fowler
• Rob Clark & Joe Roberts
• Sydney Collier
• Carlos Conceicao
• Carlos Conceicao (2)
• Carlos Conceicao and Josh Kyle
• David Coppola
• Mike Criscuolo
•Natalie Crosby
• Steve Cunningham and Timothy Janus
• Chad Curry
• Gregory Dash
• Roy Davis
• Joe Dease
• Milton DeJesus
• Milton DeJesus (2)
• Rose Dell
• Brian Donnelly
• Renee Dominguez, Leonardo Soto, & Mary Helland
• Anthony Duff
• Anthony Duff (2)
• Robert DuPont
• Robert DuPont and Rose Dell
• Eric Eisenhard & Jasmine Sanders
• Jeremie Elliott and Scott Shumway
• Jeremie Elliott (2)
• Jose Escobar Sr.
• Bertram Ettienne
• Bertram Ettienne (2)
• Martin Feliciano & Lou DeCrescenzo
• Paul Finch
• Jeffrey Fletcher
• Renee Forte
• Marco Francia
• Michael Fumiatti
• Michael Fumiatti (2)
• Osvaldo Garcia, Marlena Ofiara & Jake Wright
• William Gargone
• William Gargone (2)
• William Gargone & Mike Torre
• Derek Gartner
• Derek Gartner & Ryan Macuirzynski
• Tom Glynn & Matt Williams
• Jon Haddad & Daniela Rodriguez
• Michael Haines
• Michael Haines & Brendan Borer
• Michael Haines & Brendan Borer (2)
• Dan Hartnett
• Ray Hassett
• Robert Hayden
• Heidi
• Patricia Helliger
• Robin Higgins
• Ronnell Higgins
• William Hurley & Eddie Morrone
• Derek Huelsman
• Racheal Inconiglios
• Juan Ingles
• Bleck Joseph and Marco Correa
• Shayna Kendall
• Shayna Kendall (2)
• Paul Kenney
• Hilda Kilpatrick
• Herb Johnson
• John Kaczor & Alex Morgillo
• Jillian Knox
• Peter Krause
• Peter Krause (2)
• Amanda Leyda
• Rob Levy
•Kyle Listro & Joseph Perrotti
• Anthony Maio
• Dana Martin
• Reggie McGlotten
• Steve McMorris
• Juan Monzon
• Monique Moore and David Santiago
• Matt Myers
• Carlos and Tiffany Ortiz
• Tiffany Ortiz
• Doug Pearse and Brian Jackson
• Chris Perrone
• Joseph Perrotti
• Joseph Perrotti & Gregory Dash
• Ron Perry
• Joe Pettola
• Diego Quintero and Elvin Rivera
• Ryan Przybylski
• Stephanie Redding
• Tony Reyes
•David Rivera
• Luis & David Rivera
• Luis Rivera (2)
• Salvador Rodriguez
• Salvador Rodriguez (2)
• Brett Runlett
• David Runlett
• Betsy Segui & Manmeet Colon
• Allen Smith
• Marcus Tavares
• Martin Tchakirides
• David Totino
• Stephan Torquati
• Gene Trotman Jr.
* Elisa Tuozzoli
• Kelly Turner
• Lars Vallin (& Xander)
• Dave Vega & Rafael Ramirez
• Earl Reed
• Daophet Sangxayarath & Jessee Buccaro
• Jason Santiago
• Herb Sharp
• Matt Stevens and Jocelyn Lavandier
• Jessica Stone
• Jessica Stone & Mike DeFonzo
• Arpad Tolnay
• Mike Torre & Ray Saracco
• John Velleca
• Manuella Vensel
• Holly Wasilewski
• Holly Wasilewski (2)
• Alan Wenk
• Stephanija VanWilgen
• Donald White, Brandon Way, & David Santiago
• Elizabeth White & Allyn Wright
• Matt Williams
• Michael Wuchek
• Michael Wuchek (2)
• David Zannelli
• Cailtin Zerella
• Caitlin Zerella (2)
• Caitlin Zerella, Derek Huelsman, David Diaz, Derek Werner, Nicholas Katz, and Paul Mandel
• David Zaweski