Wrong Motorcycle, Wrong House

A day after a deadly standoff with a barricaded man in North Haven, New Haven police blocked off a portion of Newhallville for what appeared to be a standoff with a barricaded man — but turned out not to be.

The episode took place outside of the three-family home at 279 Highland St., which stands in the middle of the block between Winchester Avenue and Sheffield Avenue. The police and SWAT team closed off the block for nearly three hours.

The police search began around 1 p.m., when someone shot another man multiple times on Thompson Street. (The victim was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital for non-life threatening injuries to his elbow and a knee, according to police; the victim did not cooperate with investigators.)

The alleged shooter was seen fleeing on a green motorcycle. So a bulletin went out for police to look for someone on a green motorcycle.

An undercover officer spotted a green motorcycle about an hour later outside the three-family house on Highland. The police proceeded to clear nearby houses, set up a four-block perimeter, and blocked off the street to protect public safety. They also called in the SWAT team, which arrived at around 2:30.

From about 3 to 3:45 p.m., the SWAT team, speaking through a bullhorn, tried to convince the suspect they believed was inside the house to come out. To no avail.

Finally, at around 4 pm., the SWAT team entered the house. Around two dozen neighbors stood at the corner of Winchester and Highland, watching from afar as the SWAT team worked their way through the house.

The SWAT team went floor to floor, clearing 12 people out. They also cleared 6 people from the two adjoining properties.

But by 5 p.m. they concluded that the suspect wasn’t there, and it was apparently a different motorcycle they’d spotted. They reopened the street and people could return inside.

“After every incident what you want to do is debrief and look at what we did, what we could have done better,” Police Chief Anthony Campbell said after the block had been reopened to the public. ​“I think we had this pretty well contained and I love that we had so many different departments here.”

He said that, in addition to the police presence, the fire department, AMR, and Yale Child Study were all at the scene for the potential stand-off.

“Overall, I think the perimeter that we set,” Campbell said, ​“informing the public, talking with them the whole time, trying to communicate with them about what was going on, I think that that was really helpful.”

After the police had left, Winchester Avenue neighbors Brandi Marshall and Tammy Chapman debriefed on what they had seen. They said that, in the many years that they have lived in Newhallville, they had never seen such a military-style deployment of law enforcement in response to a suspected shooting.

“There are a lot of good people here,” Marshall said, ​“a lot of good families here. So much other stuff happens in this neighborhood. This neighborhood has totally changed in the past ten years.”

Chapman said she suspected that neighbors and police were likely on edge after last night’s deadly showdown in North Haven.

“I hate that people put the stigma on this neighborhood,” Marshall said. She said a friend recently told her that she would never move to Newhallville. Marshall responded by referencing the North Haven incident as an example of how violence is not just limited just to Winchester Avenue.

“I appreciate that the police weren’t rude to people here today,” Marshall said. But she said the police should also be aware of just how disruptive this non-showdown was to the neighborhood. She said that school buses struggled to drop off kids at home, and that residents commuting to afternoon jobs found themselves struggling to catch a city bus.

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch a press conference at the scene with Campbell and Assistant Chief Racheal Cain, while the street was still blocked off and police still believed the suspect was in the house.