Robbery/Shooting Video Told A Different Story

An armed robber in a black leather Harley Davidson jacket held up Chico’s Fruits and Groceries on Ferry Street.

Around the same time a man in a black leather Harley Davidson jacket was shot in the leg outside Chico’s Fruits and Groceries on Ferry Street.

Police said the robber and the shooting victim turned out to be the same man.

Although that’s not the way they first heard the story.

The robbery and shooting took place Tuesday shortly after midnight.

Here’s what happened, according to an arrest warrant report written by New Haven police Detective Kyle Listro based on interviews and a review of surveillance footage:

Police responded to Chico’s at 12:35 a.m. A store employee told them someone had just robbed him at gunpoint, then left the store as a gunshot went off. Police found a fired cartridge casing in the road.

At 12:52 a.m., meanwhile, a 51-year-old East Haven man walked into Yale-New Haven Hospital with a gunshot wound in his right lower leg. An officer spoke with him. He told the officer he had been buying drugs on Ferry Street when a masked ​“unknown black male” ​“ran into him,” after which point he ​“heard a loud noise and felt a burning sensation in his right leg.”

A review of inside and exterior surveillance footage from Chico’s showed the same man in the same Harley Davidson jacket actually walk into the store to the counter. The man ​“pulled out a black firearm, cycled the slide to the rear, and pointed it at the store employee,” who gave him ​“an undetermined amount of cash” from the register. The gunman then ran out — at which point the exterior video footage then shows ​“a ricochet appear to hit the pavement near the right side of his leg, causing a debris cloud.”

Listro’s report states that the cartridge casing found at the scene ​“was consistent with the ricochet and debris seen in the surveillance video.”

Police charged the East Haven man with first-degree robbery and conspiracy, unlawful discharge of a firearm, reckless endangerment, criminal firearms possession, and having a pistol without a permit. (He’s a felon and therefore not permitted to carry a gun.)

The man appeared in court Wednesday before state Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Clifford, who transferred the case from the Elm Street to the Church Street courthouse, where more serious cases are heard. He set a $350,000 surety bond, which means that to be released the arrestee would need to come up with $105,000 in cash. He has not yet entered a plea; he’ll be assigned a public defender. His next court date is Jan. 24. Meanwhile, the same defendant has yet to enter a plea to two misdemeanor drug charges from an Oct. 14 arrest by Derby police.