(Updated Sunday 2:06 p.m.) Det. Chris Perrone suited up for an icy plunge into the West River Friday afternoon as police hunted for clues to the first murder of 2010.
The murder took place soon after midnight outside Soco’s, a nightclub at 50 Fitch St.
Two men were shot right outside the front door to the club around 12:15, according to police. They were found lying there in the parking lot.
One of the men, John Brown, 32, was pronounced dead at Yale-New Haven Hospital at 4:18 a.m. He was shot in the head.
Police said the second man in the lot, who’s 19, was shot in the back. He was being treated at the Hospital of St. Raphael. He was still in critical condition even after emergency surgery, Assistant Police Chief Pete Reichard said Friday afternoon.
Reichard said police are handling the shooting as a murder case.
The club’s owner, Carlos Pena, said Friday afternoon that the victim had been a patron of the club. The other victim, and a third man witnesses said was involved in the shootings, did not attend the club, Pena said. He also asserted that incident did not stem from an argument inside the club.
Police had “leads” on a suspect “but no one specific” as of mid-Sunday, Reichard said
No gun was found at the scene. One of the bullets (pictured) was discovered right by the door to Soco’s.
“We had to melt all the snow in the parking lot to look for ballistic evidence,” Reichard said.
Police spotted fresh footprints in the snow headed toward the West River, which runs behind the club.
So around 2 p.m. Friday the police dive team, including Det. Perrone (pictured at the top of the story), suited up to check the river for the gun.
Perrone was asked the secret to staying as warm as possible when wading into the waist-deep water.
“Layers,” he responded.
In the end the dive team did not find any weapons in the water Friday.
Reichard said the club had not appeared to have been crowded on New Year’s Eve. A handbill for the event (pictured) advertised a party with no cover charge and aimed at a “grown and sexy crowd.”
Police were seeking to determine if the 19-year-old victim had been inside the nightclub, Reichard said.
That’s a relevant question to the surrounding neighborhoods of Westville and Beaver Hills.
Some neighbors had opposed a zoning request in 2008 that led to Soco’s opening. They argued it would bring trouble to the area. Their concerns included underaged drinking; the bar’s owner promised to prevent it.
“I’m not surprised that something happened,” Westville activist Kate Bradley said Friday of the shooting. “It was only a matter of time.”
Club owner Pena said the shooting had nothing to do with the event inside his club.
“The incident occurred outside the restaurant. At the time, about 50 people were enjoying a peaceful and relatively low-key New Year’s celebration” inside Soco’s, he said, reading a prepared statement
He thanked his staff and “some guests” who made sure everyone inside the club remained safe during the incident and “rendered immediate first aid to those who required it outside.”
“It is also important to note that senseless, random acts of violence did not stem from any argument or disturbance that occurred inside the bar,” Pena said. He said he “prays” for a speedy recovery for the other victim and an “end to the spree of violence that has plagued the city in the past few weeks.”
Greg Smith, a friend of Pena, was on the scene Friday afternoon as police investigated. He said Pena runs “a good club.”
Smith showed up outside 50 Fitch with Pastor Troy McNulty (pictured above, left to right). They were organizing a community rally in support of the murder victim and his family.
“Any time we hear there’s a murder, we’re going to the location and demonstrate that we care,” McNulty said.
Dixwell Slashing
In a separate New Year’s incident, a 29-year-old man went to Yale-New Haven Hospital with serious injuries after a 3 a.m. fight at Henry and Orchard.
The man was in a fight with two men who’d approached him, police said. One of the two men slashed his face with a razor blade.
Police said the victim “was uncooperative with police and would not give a straight story as to how the incident occurred. He did not state that there was a fight, nor being robbed.”
The slasher left “deep cuts” to his left cheek, head, and ear, according to police. He was termed “conscious and stable” at the hospital.
Our community rallied together and publicly opposed the opening of Soco because of this type of violence. Three year ago, we would hear numerous and frequent fights and gun shots coming from the parking lot and would call the New Haven police multiple times per week. The address of 50 Fitch is well known to this law enforcement.
How the city of New Haven could allow another bar to open is absurd. It is regretful that the opinions of the local community who, committed to improving this neighborhood, was ignored. It is also regretful and a paradox that as our family and friends celebrated our community at midnight, two men were shot less than 50 yards from our home.