Thomas Breen photo
The SWAT team arrives on Chamberlain Street.
The police SWAT team took an alleged bank robber into custody Thursday afternoon after an hours-long standoff and hostage negotiation on Chamberlain Street in the Annex.
Shift Commander Lt. Stephan Tourquati told the Independent that the suspect allegedly robbed a bank on Whalley Avenue around midday on Thursday.
Update: On Friday morning, Sgt. Shayna Kendall sent out a press release announcing that city police responded at 12:17 p.m. Thursday to an alleged robbery at Wells Fargo bank on Whalley Avenue near Norton St.
Looking up Chamberlain Street.
“Officers were provided a description of the suspect vehicle and observed it near the interstate,” she wrote. Police pursued the suspect, a 23-year-old New Haven man, to a house at 79 Chamberlain St.
“New Haven Police Hostage Negotiation Team was able to make contact with” the suspect, she wrote. “After a peaceful exit came to a stall, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) used less lethal force to disorient him and he was subsequently taken into custody.” He has been charged with criminal intent to commit robbery in the second degree.
A crowd of neighbors slowly took shape up and down Chamberlain Street as the police taped off the block between Chamberlain Place and Fairmont Avenue.
Michelle Young.
“He ain’t going nowhere with all these cops,” Chamberlain Street resident Michelle Young mused as camouflaged SWAT personnel arrived with long guns, helmets, and sunglasses.
She said she has been living on the block for only six months. In her brief time on Chamberlain, nothing like this has ever happened on the quiet, residential street.
“Nothing happens here,” another neighbor said as he threw his hands in the hair and walked away from the scene. “Twenty-two years on this street, and I’ve never seen nothing happen like this.”
Shift Commander Lt. Stephan Tourquati addresses reporters on the scene.
Just after 2:40 p.m., SWAT team members carrying long black shields walked up the sidewalk outside of the house. At 2:57, neighbors could hear two quick pops.
Officers said that those were not bullets fired, but rather “less than lethal” force used to subdue the suspect, who was subsequently taken by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital just after 3 p.m.
No one else was injured, officers said. Much of Chamberlain Street remained closed to through traffic at 3:20.
It's not clear how this involved a hostage negotiation if he locked himself in his house "alone and armed." This response, with the camouflage and big guns, seems overly militaristic for catching a bank robber.