nothin NHPD: Violence Thwarted At Violence Vigils | New Haven Independent

NHPD: Violence Thwarted At Violence Vigils

Paul Bass Photo

Interim Chief Dominguez, Asst Chief Karl Jacobson, major-crime chiefs Capt. John Healy and Sgt. Bertram Ettienne at Tuesday briefing.

At a 14-year-old’s funeral, the mayor preached from the pulpit, calling on the community to help cops solve shootings.

In the crowd, a 15-year-old kept a Smith & Wesson hidden.

Also in the crowd, plainclothes detectives kept watch on the 15-year-old, to make sure no one else’s funeral would follow.

That episode took place inside Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ at the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Henry Street on the morning of Sept. 8, at the funeral of 14-year-old homicide victim Tyshawn TyTy” Hargrove.

It was one of two recent memorial events for homicide victims at which New Haven police received tips about armed teens who might be bringing trouble. Both incidents ended with arrests, and no violence.

Just in those two incidents alone,” Police Chief Renee Dominguez said at a press conference held Tuesday at police headquarters to describe successful recent investigations conducted by the department’s beefed-up shooting task force, we are significantly stopping further violence at a place where people are grieving due to gun violence. We have a perpetual cycle of victimizing ourself over and over again. We have people there with weapons … It’s important for us to take these off the streets.”

Hargrove was shot dead on Chatham Street on the night of Aug. 25, less than three weeks before he turned 15. At his Sept. 8 funereal, Mayor Justin Elicker made a plea to those assembled to step forward with information about that shooting and others so police can reverse the deadly violence that has gripped New Haven. The city has seen 83 reported shootings and 22 homicides so far this year; last year it recorded 20 homicides, which was also a jump from previous years.

Detectives on the shooting task force learned that two individuals would attend the funeral with an illegal handgun,” police spokesperson Officer Scott Shumway told the Independent. The two young men, 15 and 16 years old, arrived at the church in a stolen Honda Accord, and went inside.

Members of the task force and the department’s criminal intelligence unit were present at the church, too.

They received permission from the stolen Honda’s owner to search the car. The firearm was not inside the vehicle.

So as the mayor and others spoke, officers kept a close eye on the two young men. The men did not cause trouble during the ceremony. The cops stopped the pair when they exited the church, according to Shumway, and found one in illegal possession of a Smith and Wesson revolver. They were arrested on firearms and stolen-vehicle charges.

Elicker was asked Tuesday how he felt upon subsequently learning about what had been occurring under the radar at the funeral.

I walk in neighborhoods all around the city. Occasionally we will run across people with guns,” he said. I assume that guns are on people more often than any of us would like.”

The larger issue,” he said, is the fact that someone would bring a gun to a funeral, and how we as a society respond to that.”

Shumway described the fine line” detectives walk during incidents like the one inside Trinity Temple. They don’t want to provoke violence by unnecessarily confronting people during a service, and they want to respect the assembleds’ ability to mourn, he said. On the other hand, they need to be ready to spring into action if trouble develops.

These detectives did an outstanding job of monitoring until it’s safe enough to make an arrest,” he said.

The task force’s detectives walked that same line, with similar results, at a less formal outdoor memorial vigil held for Hargrove on Chatham Street on the evening of Aug. 26.

In that case, the Bridgeport police department’s gang unit had forwarded information to New Haven’s police that two individuals known to them to be in possession of an illegal gun” were headed to the vigil, Shumway reported. The pair indeed showed up. Again, plainclothes detectives kept watch amid the crowd in case they needed to take action. They were able to wait until the pair drove away from the scene with three others in an Elantra. The detectives then stopped the Elantra. They found two illegal firearms and made several arrests.

At Tuesday’s press briefing, Dominguez reported that the department’s shootings task force is currently focusing on 26 cases, and is making progress on many of them. As a result, police arrested a man in connection with a nonfatal May 12 shooting, and made two arrests in connection to a May 20 West Street shooting, for instance. A search warrant enabled police to recover weapons connected to another West Street incident, on Aug. 19, when shooters sprayed at least 19 bullets at the scene. An arrest warrant is expected in that case, as well as in the investigation of a Sept. 3 shooting following a fight at Dixwell Plaza. The task force recovered nine illegal weapons and arrested three people in connection with a July 26 shooting incident on Blatchley Avenue.

The chief announced that the state police have assigned three detectives to begin working this week with New Haven’s shootings task force, which also includes members from other area departments.

Dominguez said this will be the first in a series of weekly press briefings about progress made in the department’s increased efforts to stem gun violence. The department decided to initiate the briefings after hearing from the community, at events like a three-hour forum last Friday in Fair Haven, that it would like to receive more information about crime and crime prevention efforts.

The department has embarked on an energetic recruitment effort, with a focus on finding New Haveners interested in becoming cops. The department has 317 sworn officers, out of 406 budgeted positions, according to Dominguez.

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

Avatar for Cjl215

Avatar for Heather C.

Avatar for ElmCityLover

Avatar for Ex-NHPD

Avatar for SusieQ

Avatar for Thomas Alfred Paine

Avatar for LorcaNotOrca

Avatar for THREEFIFTHS

Avatar for Patricia Kane