(Update) A man wanted by the police is in the hospital in critical condition after an officer shot him.
The incident unfolded at 5:44 p.m. Tuesday in the Kimberly Square section of the Hill neighborhood.
Here’s what happened, according to a release from the state police:
Undercover cops spotted a man wanted on an arrest warrant near Lamberton Street. The sought to arrest him; he fled. They chased him.
They caught up with him but he “managed to fight himself free and continued to flee.”
“An exchange of gun fire took place as the suspect continued to attempt to elude officers,” the release continues. It doesn’t state who shot first.
“When the suspected arrived in the area of First Avenue, officers were able to take him into custody without further incident,” the release reports.
The arrestee, who is 22 years old and lives on the east side of town, was shot in the pelvis. He went to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where his is reported in “critical but stable condition.” The officers involved did not get hurt.
Police seized a firearm at the scene, according to a separate release from New Haven department spokesman Capt. Anthony Duff.
As is protocol when a cop shoots a suspect, the state police have come in to investigate the incident.
Also according to protocol, the officers at the scene will automatically be placed on administrative duty, Chief Anthony Campbell said.
While the devotion to detailed journalism is noted, stating who shot first is especially irrelevant to this article. Emboldened as our criminal element may be, there is never a justification to shoot at police officers righteously enforcing the law, nor is "who shot first" a legal standard guiding officers to use force against a resisting felon.
Thankfully, all the officers survived this deadly encounter. Hopefully the offender will not be coddled by a head-in-the-clouds judge. Unsurprisingly, the cop haters are even now demanding the release of evidence to promptly ignore and declare the offender a model citizen and community leader.