Allan Appel Photo
Wydra with Barbara Vereen at the meeting.
“Communication is important,” said the Hamden police department evening shift commander.
“So communicate,” said the community management team chair. “For example, are you married? Children?’’
That personal back-and-forth was part of an interchange between Hamden police Lt. Tim Wydra, the evening shift commander, and Kim Harris, the chairperson of the Newhallville Community Mangement Team
Newhallville CMT chair Kim Harris.
The conversation took place at the monthly meeting of the Newhallville Community Management Team (CMT) in the cafeteria of the Lincoln-Bassett school Tuesday night before a group of about two dozen residents.
It was the first time in her memory, said CMT treasurer Nina Faucett, that a representative from the Hamden police had come to this key monthly gathering of residents of Newhallville, which sits on the Hamden-New Haven border
The appearance of Wydra, a 27-year veteran who is the brother of the retired Hamden police chief, Tom Wydra, followed the April 16 shooting by Hamden police officer Devon Eaton of Stephanie Washington at the corner of Argyle Street and Dixwell in the Newhallville neighborhood.
State police have released video from the camera worn by the Hamden officer as he fired bullets at Wasghinton and Paul Witherspoon, the other passenger in the car that night. It showed the officer firing directly into the passenger window of the car. The state’s police commissioner office, which is leading the investigation, has also revealed that Hamden failed to notify New Haven police that an officer was crossing into town to confront a suspect and that a Yale police officer who also fired his gun did not turn on his body camera.
Newhallville District Manager Lt. Manmeet Colon and LCI Specialist Linda Davis.
Amid public outcry, Hamden officials said they would begin attending Newhallville CMT meetings to build trust. The Hamden police were conspicuously absent from last month’s Newhallville CMT meeting, where New Haven and Yale police officials showed up in force to answer questions and to try to regain the trust of a shaken community.
Harris welcomed Wydra Tuesday night and said his presence was important.
Then she shifted to the April 16 shooting. “Is there an update?” she asked.
Wydra said only that the state’s attorney is leading the investigation and the Hamden police themselves are conducting “an intensive internal investigation.”
Despite demonstrations and other pressures in Hamden for an independent investigation of the Hamden police incident and for the firing of the Hamden officer, those steps have not been taken.
“It will play out,” Wydra concluded.
Wydra, in other brief remarks, preferred to look forward. “Communication,” he said, “is key. When you know each other well, you get ahead of things.”
“‘Communication!’,” said Harris, shifting to the personal, “so start. Married? Children?”
“Yes, two adult children,” said Wydra.
When Wydra sat down at a table, Newhallville Livable City Initiative (LCI) specialist Linda Davis paid him a compliment: “I thought you were 27.”
“I was … once,” he replied.
Wydra.
Wydra stayed for another hour-plus discussion in which he listened with interest to a wide range of of other issues percolating through Newhallville.
Those included the need for affordable housing, how Newhallvillians get on city commissions in order to have a voice in municipal decisions, and how the “wow” of Newhallville includes an unusually large number of small businesses.
His take-away from the meeting: “There’s a lot of energy here and a lot of well informed people trying to lead this neighborhood. That’s very positive. That’s what community policing needs.”
Before he left, Wydra got a big hug from Barbara Vereen, the ward’s co-chair, who is also the daughter of Connie Vereen. She’s the community activist with whom Wydra was familiar from her work on establishing a block watch and in 2017 a park on Cherry Ann Street.
That’s the street smack dab on the Hamden and New Haven border. The park brought kids — and the grown-ups — together across the two towns.
“I’d love to come to future meetings,” Wydra said as he headed out. “I think my bosses would like me to.”
