Someone shot a bullet into a Thompson Street house late Friday night — and the bullet struck the leg of an 8‑year-old boy inside.
The police Saturday released surveillance video footage of the shooting. You can watch it above. It shows a driver passing the house (which is on Thompson between Shelton Avenue and Newhall Street), then pulling back; and a man getting out of the car and firing the weapon.
The shooting occurred at 11:23 p.m. Nearby officers heard the shooting, went to the scene, and discovered the boy lying down in a first-floor bedroom, according to a release from New Haven police spokesman Capt. Anthony Duff. The boy was taken to the hospital for treatment. Duff described the injury as non-life-threatening.
Yale Child Study Center, which has a partnership with New Haven police, dispatched counselors to the scene and to the hospital.
“I ask all New Haven residents to imagine the anguish felt today by the family of the eight-year-old, innocent victim of last night’s reckless shooting, and recommit themselves to the efforts of city officials, civic leaders, and the faith community to curb gun violence,” Mayor Toni Harp stated in a release issued Saturday. “No family should find itself in the crosshairs of the artificial bravado guns promote among some people; we’ve made strides in New Haven these years to reduce violent crime but clearly a stubborn gun culture persists.”
Police said Saturday they believe the shooting is linked to another incident that occurred earlier Friday night across the town line in Hamden: the shooting of five people at a large party with a deejay in a backyard on Choate Avenue.
An officer had stopped by the “large party” at 7:20 p.m., according to Hamden police. The officer determined the music there was “not unreasonably loud”; he asked the homeowner to have guests leave by 10 p.m.
“People were well-behaved,” Acting Hamden Police Chief John Cappiello said at Saturday press conference. The deejay at the party stopped the music at 8:45 p.m. People started leaving the party. Officers were nearby.
“Just before 9 o’clock, shots rang out” nearby, he said.
Five people were injured and hospitalized; none of the injuries is described as life-threatening. An 18-year-old New Haven woman was shot “in the area of her right flank,” according to Smith. A 19-year-old Bridgeport woman was shot in the buttocks, a 20-year-old New Haven man in the arm, a 21-year-old Hamden woman in the foot, and a 23-year-old New Haven man in the thigh.
“I don’t blame the party. There was no violence at the party,” Cappiello said.
“This is not a common occurrence in our town,” Mayor Curt Leng said at the press conference.
“Quick action last night saved lives,” said Hamden Legislative Council member Brad Macdowall.
Street Outreach Worker program head Len Jahad met with the victims at the hospital. The victims are not usually “associated with the kind of activity,” Jahad said at the press conferene. They were just at the party.
“These types of parties don’t belong in our [residential] neighborhoods,” Leng added. He said they belong in proper venues. “You are not expecting and do not deserve to have events that are large, loud, and commercial” in a residential neighborhood. “We’re going to work on addressing these events moving forward and keep them in proper venues where they belong.”
Another innocent child who's barely 10 years old gets hurt. No comments about it? This is awful on many levels, hopefully Ms. Ellington can get things started..... holding breath, holding breath, oh I'm dead. God bless that child!!!!