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Ghost(gun)-buster: Capt. John Healy.
A top cop is focusing on tracking down the emergence of “ghost guns” in New Haven following two more arrests involving the elusive weapons.
The top cop, Capt. John Healy, is working with his shooting task force and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to try to trace where the various parts of the home-assembled weapons are coming from and how they’re ending up in the Elm City.
Interim Police Chief Renee Dominguez announced that mission Monday at a weekly press conference update held at police headquarters.
At the press conference, she disclosed that the police recovered two more of the illegal weapons this past week in separate incidents: the arrest of a man last Wednesday at George and Day streets and another of an East Haven man this past Friday night.
That makes nine ghost guns recovered as part of arrests this calendar year, compared to three at this point last year, Dominguez stated.
Ghost guns, which Connecticut outlawed in 2019, are growing in popularity and causing concern among law enforcement agencies nationwide. People assemble them from home out of various metal parts they obtain, combined with plastic parts they can create themselves with 3‑D printers. People can buy “ghost gun kits” to put together the weapons. And of course they don’t go through background checks, meaning domestic abusers and other criminals may more easily obtain them. (Click here for an-depth look at the phenomenon from Vice.)
Healy spoke Monday about how investigators can usually gather information faster about illegal guns they recover by tracing the serial numbers to learn the identity of the manufacturer, the initial seller, and buyer. Ghost guns don’t have the serial numbers.
Earlier this year Mayor Justin Elicker endorsed a new rule proposed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland aiming at ghost gun, to broaden the definition of regulated firearms and requiring serial numbers to be included in assembly kits. Click here to read a letter he wrote about that.
Also at Monday’s press conference, Chief Dominguez reported:
• The name of the 40-year-old pedestrian killed by a CT Transit bus last Thursday evening as she crossed Chapel Street near Orange. Her name was Monica Wormley. The NHPD’s crash unit is investigating the incident.
• The NHPD received 523 applications from people looking to become police officers in a recruiting round that closed last Friday. That topped the previous round’s number by 15 percent. The department also plans to open a round of applications in a few weeks for “lateral” hires from other departments.
• Police responded to two shootings over the past week: A 55-year-old man was shot in the right foot on Chatham Street last Thursday around 4 a.m. A 56-year-old New York man was shot on Sherman Avenue Sunday night around 8. Both victims’ injuries were non-life-threatening.
• Police arrested a man last Friday around 2 p.m. for allegedly slashing another person on State Street in the neck and shoulder. Police were able to make the arrest on scene, and recover the knife, thanks to help of “numerous witnesses,” Dominguez said. She thanked the public for the assistance.
• K2 — synthetic marijuana —was back in the news. Armed with a search warrant, police raided two separate motels on Pond Lily Avenue, finding 33 bags of K2 packaged for sale in one location, 363 grams of it in another. A 56-year-old New Haven man was arrested in connection with the raid. Back in 2018, a bad batch of K2 led to more than 100 poisonings on the Green.
Watch the full press conference below:
