(Updated) Police fanned out Tuesday evening through the Quinnipiac Meadows woods seeking a fugitive violent man on the run. The man got away.
The manhunt followed a car chase shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday. The police were pursuing a man they believed to be Wilfredo Franco; they’ve been looking to arrest him on a warrant in connection with a shooting on George Street.
“They saw him in Fair Haven. They chased him all the way up” to Fair Haven Heights, reported Sgt. Vincent Anastasio, the East Shore’s top cop.
Franco bailed out of his car, a black Mazda, at the end of Oak Ridge Drive. “He’s running through the woods. We have dogs tracking him,” Anastasio reported at 5:55 p.m.
As of 7 p.m., the suspect was still at large, Anastasio said.
Police set up checkpoints in the area of Norwood Road, Glen Haven Road and Melrose Drive. Police canines joined the hunt. At 6:38 police reported following a black Honda with tinted windows whose driver turned away from the checkpoint and drove up a hill. Meanwhile, East Haven police reported that a woman there had asked them for directions to Oak Ridge Drive. She turned out not to be involved in the case.
Anastasio was at a National Nite Out community event when he heard about the chase on the radio and joined the pursuit.
After several hours, and no sign of Franco, the hunt was called off.
Police obtained a warrant for Franco’s arrest after he allegedly committed the shooting on the second floor of a George Street home on July 23; he was on parole at the time. He’s been missing since.
“He’s a parole absconder,” said Lt. Luiz Casanova, who heads the police department’s patrol division.
Franco, who was born in 1984, has a history of convictions dating back to 2001 for offenses ranging from drug dealing and carrying a pistol without a permit to first-degree escape.
I live on Atwater St here in Fair Haven and was backing out of my Driveway around 5:15 -5:20 pm when this guy came flying down the street doing at least 100 MPH with 5 NHPD cars after him. If I left my house 15 sec earlier he would have hit me. I never even seen him till he was half way down the next block of Atwater st heading towards Grand ave. At first I thought it was a Bike speeding as he zipped buy me, all i heard was the noise of him going behind me.
I really hope they get this guy he doesn'tcare for anyone else life not even his own driving like that