City police arrested two 26-year-old New Haveners and charged them with criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, as part of the department’s efforts to crack down on a recent surge in local gun violence.
One of the suspects was arrested on Aug. 28 and the other on Tuesday, according to a Tuesday email press release from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s office and according to a recently unsealed affidavit written by city FBI Task Force Officer Frank Grillo.
Both men are currently detained pending their respective trials in federal court. One man, whom police believe was present at the Aug. 15 shooting death of Hill boxer Dayshon Smith, is being detained without bond.
The press release stated that the prosecution of these two New Haveners is part of a “coordinated federal, state and local law enforcement effort to address rising gun violence in New Haven.”
The law enforcement agencies involved included the city’s police department, the FBI’s New Haven Safe Streets/Gang Task Force; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the federal Drug Enforcement Agency; the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office; and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The press release and the Aug. 19 affidavit by Grillo state that, on July 31, police received a tip that several members of the “Exit 8” group were seen in possession of firearms and standing near the entrance to the Essex Townhouses complex at 1134 Quinnipiac Ave.
City police officers and FBI task force members entered the housing complex around 10 p.m. that same night using unmarked police vehicles and clad in plain clothes with badges and “Police” insignia in plain view, according to Grillo’s affidavit.
Soon after 10 p.m., city Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson entered the parking lot in an unmarked police vehicle and activated his vehicle’s lights to clear pedestrian traffic from the driveway and to alert the group of the police’s presence.
Grillo wrote that Jacobson immediately recognized 10 to 15 members of the “Exit 8” group, including one of the men who was subsequently arrested. Jacobson recognized that man through his participation in Project Longevity.
As the officers exited their unmarked police vehicles outside Essex Townhouses, several men whom the police believed to be armed “began to disperse in an attempt to elude Officers,” Grillo wrote.
Grillo saw one man wearing a black fanny pack draped across his body cut through the complex. Grillo pursued him on foot. The man lost his footing, fell to the ground, and Grillo and a fellow detective detained him. Inside the fanny pack, the law enforcement officers found a Smith and Wesson Model 469, 9mm. The firearm had one round in the chamber and several more in the magazine, Grillo wrote.
A check of the firearm’s serial number later revealed that the gun had been stolen out of Hamden in August 2018, according to the affidavit.
As Grillo detained one suspect, officers observed another man repeatedly try to pull an object from his right pants pocket while running from law enforcement, the affidavit states.
Police detained him as well. Jacobson reached into the man’s pocket and pulled out a small black handgun, which police identified as a Taurus PT-22, 22 caliber LR. The firearm had an empty chamber but seven rounds in the magazine, Grillo wrote. An ATF expert later determined that that gun had been manufactured in Florida, while the Smith and Wesson seized had been manufactured in Massachusetts.
Both men detained by police have previously been convicted of felonies: one for sale of narcotics and having a pistol with no permit, and the other for having a weapon in a motor vehicle and a pistol with no permit.
“It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce,” the Tuesday press release read.
According to the release, when one of the men appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah A.L. Merriam in New Haven for a detention hearing Tuesday, the government presented evidence alleging that that man was present during the killing of local boxing champ Dayshon Smith on Rosette Street in the Hill in mid-August.
Both men have been charged with criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The man law enforcement believe was present at Smith’s homicide is being detained with no bond, while the second man arrested on gun charges has a bond hearing on Friday.
Thank you to all the people involved with getting these guns off the street. Clearly Project Longevity was helpful in officers ability to identify suspects with a history of being at risk for violence in the community. The more the police work with the community and get to personally know all the individual people in the community, the more they will know who is at risk, who needs intervention, and who isn't a troublemaker and just needs social services and support.