Thomas Breen photo
Solar Youth’s Candace Wright and Joanne Sciulli at the nonprofit’s Westville Manor headquarters the day after the shooting.
Joanne Sciulli and Candace Wright had planned on talking about COVID-19 precautionary measures at Solar Youth’s all-staff meeting.
They instead ending up dealing with the traumatic fallout from a safety hazard even more immediate than the virus pandemic: a shooting that took place outside of the West Rock nonprofit’s headquarters right as kids were arriving for an after-school program.
That shooting happened just before 3 p.m. Monday in the Westville Manor public housing complex on the far west side of town.
According to police spokesperson Capt. Anthony Duff, a 24-year-old New Havener was shot in the foot near the intersection of Lodge Street and Level Street at around that time. That location is just a block south from Solar Youth’s headquarters at 53 Wayfarer St.
The shooting victim suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to Duff’s email press release. The 24-year-old man soon thereafter arrived by private vehicle at Yale New Haven Hospital’s St. Raphael campus for treatment.
During a Tuesday afternoon interview in Solar Youth’s second floor office, Sciulli and Wright, who are respectively the founder/executive director and operations director of the two-decade-old local youth empowerment nonprofit, said that this incident had a much broader impact than just a man getting shot in the foot.
Outside Solar Youth’s 53 Wayfarer St. headquarters.
That’s because the argument that likely led to the shooting took place right outside of Solar Youth’s front door. And a few minutes later, the actual shooting took place right behind their office.
All while kids as young as 5 years old were already at the after-school program, or in the front parking lot getting dropped off by family and friends, or en route and scheduled to arrive at Wayfarer Street within minutes.
Solar Youth runs three programs: a green jobs program for teenagers, and two after-school programs for children ages 5 through 13 in which kids do homework, play games, do community service projects, and teach one another about how to address things in their environment that they want to change.
“There were over 20 shots fired within a few feet of here right before kids were starting to arrive for our after-school program,” Sciulli said. “It was a very serious crisis.
“This wasn’t about some guy that shot himself in the foot. This is a thing that happened that’s definitely traumatizing for people that were around. That’s chronically traumatizing for people who live out here and feel helpless and like that’s just normal. And traumatizing for my staff and kids.”
Sciulli wasn’t at the office at the time, having taken her daughter to a doctor’s visit. But Wright was.
“It was a normal day,” she said. “I was getting ready for our program,” talking to high school interns as they arrived.
“I saw some commotion outside,” two women in an argument. She wasn’t sure if was a regular dispute that would soon die down or “something bigger.”
The conflict moved from Solar Youth’s front parking lot to behind the building. Less than five minutes later, Wright heard shots ring out. She counted each in her head. There were at least 20, she said. Maybe 30.
Wright said there were at least five staff on site at the time, as well as four or five kids.
“I urged people to get inside immediately and to stay away from the windows,” she remembered. She called the police and called Sciulli.
Solar Youth Green Jobs Coordinator Kyley Komschlies (pictured) was cutting construction paper at the time in preparation for a vision board project when he heard the shots outside the office.
“Our focus was trying to get everybody inside, as much as possible,” he said. “It was confusing because there were a lot of moving parts, a lot of people running around.” He said staff were able to make contact with all of the parents of the kids who participate in the after-school program.
“Really we just sat around until we were able to talk to parents and get kids home safely.” The last kids left Solar Youth’s site at around 4:15 that afternoon, he said.
“Everyone is OK thankfully physically,” Wright said. “But there is still going to be a need for more resources provided.”
She and Sciulli said that they have partnered with the local Post Traumatic Stress Center to have a clinician come out to Solar Youth and talk with staff about the shooting. They said they also plan to reach out to the Clifford Beers mental health clinic to provide similar services for Solar Youth’s child after-school program participants.
Sciulli said that Tuesday’s Solar Youth staff meeting was supposed to be all about reviewing processes for what to do in response to coronavirus. Instead, they spoke about what to do if shots are fired right outside their office as kids are arriving for the after-school program.
“Constant State Of Crisis Management”
Around the corner from Solar Youth’s office, near where Monday’s shooting took place.
Sciulli said this isn’t the first shooting to take place near Solar Youth’s office. In fact, just four days prior, another shooting took place near Lodge Street — this one happening at around noon, several hours before the 3 p.m. start time of the Monday-Friday after-school program.
Westville/West Rock top cop Lt. Elliot Rosa said in his weekly Westville crime roundup video that police found 10 to 14 rounds after the March 5 Lodge Street shooting. He said two vehicles were struck by gunfire, and that no one was injured.
Sciulli said that her organization, which has been based out of Westville Manor for the past 15 years, has long had in place an emergency protocol for what to do if a shooting happens nearby as the after-school program is in session. She said the organization developed these eight years ago, coincidentally enough just before the Sandy Hook massacre.
That protocol calls on children and staff to get down and lay flat on the ground, she said. To make sure that the doors are locked, and to call 9 – 1‑1. To wait until the gunshots have stopped, and then to make decisions about cancelling programming.
Monday’s shooting presented a bit of a novel situation: a shooting that happened not while the program was in session, but right before it was set to start, with kids either arriving or about to arrive and still outside of the building.
What should Solar Youth and other private after-school programs embedded in the community do in such situations? Komschlies asked. “Should kids be running home? Or fleeing?”
Sciulli said that she and her staff met with Rosa Tuesday morning, and he said that what the nonprofit did in trying to get everyone inside as quickly as possible and hunkered down in a safe place and then calling the police, was exactly the best thing to do.
“And who do we get the all-clear signal from?” Sciulli asked. How do private organizations like hers find out when it’s all safe for kids and adults to go outside again? For parents to come by and pick up their kids?
She said that Rosa told her to call the non-emergency police phone number to get the all-clear.
In his weekly video update, Rosa also recommended that staff at private organizations and afterschool programs like Solar Youth register on the city website to receive emergency notifications through the city’s Everbridge system.. He said the city usually sends out a second alert after an incident like a shooting to let recipients know that it’s safe to go outside again.
“Unless you are specially trained in tactics and things of that nature, which you probably are not,” Rosa advised in his video, “you can just try and secure those children and get them inside to a safe place as soon as possible. Safety is paramount.”
Sciulli said that the recent shootings near Solar Youth’s office have reminded her that “doing this work, really embedded in a neighborhood, it feels like we’re almost in a constant state of crisis management, which makes it really hard to be able to take a breath and know that you’re doing everything that you possibly can.”
Wright said that the recent shootings have reminded her of just how important it is not to become desensitized to gun violence, no matter what else is going on in the world.
“I want to recognize that this is something that we as a community are still dealing with,” she said.
“And I want to maintain a sense of resilience and hope that the work that we’re doing is impacting young people long term. I do want to remind people to still be hopeful, despite all of these things that are still happening.”
Joann and Candace do amazing work! I'm sorry our young kids have to be exposed to such traumatic events! I hope there will be a greater police presence especially when the young children are there!