Thomas Breen Photo
Home-invasion victim Doyens: “We are in a bizarre time.”
A 19-year-old man is back home nursing shoulder pains as police look for the men responsible for shooting him during a weekend crime spree in Westville.
The series of pre-dawn crimes took place in Westville and included at least one home invasion, a car theft, attempted car thefts, the shooting, and a car crash.
It all apparently began with attempted break-ins early Saturday in upper Westville, including a stop at 3:02 a.m. at a Colonial on Birch Drive owned by local government watchdog Gary Doyens.
Doyens and his wife were asleep at the time. Their “Simplisafe” home security-system alarm woke them up, along with a call from the alarm company.
At first, Doyens figured his adult son had stopped by after his shift at Yale New Haven Hospital and accidentally tripped the alarm. Doyens started walking downstairs.
“Jordan!” he called down. “What are you doing? Turn off the alarm.”
Then he heard two people talking.
Doyens went downstairs. He saw a pair of young men flee.
He would later learn that they had first tried to break into the house through double French doors in the back, failed, then got in through a front window. That tripped the alarm. The duo proceeded to unplug the alarm router, throw it out the window, and grab his wife’s pocketbook and keys to the family’s Volvo before escaping.
Doyens followed the pair outside in his pajamas. He saw the pair hop into the Volvo, which was parked in the driveway in front of the family’s Dodge Ram. A bicycle was left behind in between the two vehicles.
The pair couldn’t back out of the driveway because of the Dodge. Doyens watched the driver ram his way out through a neighbor’s yard, hitting the Doyens’ house, their truck and a telephone pole along the way.
In retrospect, “I don’t know what I thought I was doing” by following the men outside, Doyens said in a conversation Monday. “I don’t think I was scared at the moment. Your adrenaline is kicking in; someone has violated your house. It was like a movie: You didn’t think this would happen in Westville.” A car theft, perhaps. Not a home invasion.
Officers arrived moments later. They took a report, seized the bicycle as evidence in the hope of finding prints or DNA traces. They remarked on the recent surge in break-ins and shootings across the city.
“We are in a bizarre time” of people acting crazy, Doyens noted.
Paul Bass Photo
A couple of hours later, a car alarm awakened a 19-year-old man who lives in a West Rock Avenue apartment across from Edgewood Park. It was the alarm to his Honda Civic, parked in the above-pictured backyard lot of a multifamily home.
The man figured the alarm had gone off accidentally. He turned it off remotely.
Then the alarm went off again. He went outside to investigate.
Suddenly gunshots rang out. Two bullets hit him in the shoulder.
The shooter fled. The 19-year-old victim was taken to the hospital. He was released later that day, according to his mother, who described the incident in a conversation at the house Monday with the help of English translation from her niece. Her son survived the shooting and is in a lot of pain but recovering inside, she said.
Police believe the two incidents are linked and are pursuing leads, according to Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson. He said Monday that to publicly divulge more details now would jeopardize the investigation.
He also said police recovered Doyens’ Volvo after it was involved in a crash that occurred on Second Street in the Hill at 10:59 a.m. The Volvo’s occupants fled the scene after the car struck a curb, then a parked vehicle.
Detectives later returned to Doyens’ home to inform him the Volvo had been recovered (with a broken front axle). Police are keeping it impounded for now for evidence in the investigation. No word yet on whether his wife’s belongings were in the car.
Doyens said the crime left him feeling “violated.”
“You work hard. You take precautions. You have an alarm system. You keep everything locked. It didn’t prevent them from doing what they wanted to do,” he reflected. “It’s frustrating. It makes me angry.”
And, in retrospect, the apparently armed assailants could have chosen to come upstairs.
Pretty scary stuff. And what will happen to them when they are caught, particularly if they are juveniles?