“If you wanna fight, let’s fight,” a tenant told his landlord during an altercation at 150 West St. — three nights before the same tenant would perish in a fire at the property.
That account comes from a newly released police report about an incident that occurred at 150 West St. late on the night of May 1.
The incident led to the arrest of the landlord, John Farrar.
The alleged victim of an assault by Farrar was a tenant named Michael Randall. Randall lived on the second floor of 150 West, a supposedly two-family home that had been converted into a rooming house crammed with 16 people.
A fire broke out at that house at 3:20 a.m. Sunday. Tenants leaped out of windows to escape death. Randall and another tenant, Corey Reed, never made it out. They were trapped on the third floor and died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries, according to the state medical examiner. Multiiple city and state agencies are currently conducting investigations into the fire and into prior conditions at the house, including into why, according to multiple tenants and at least one firefighter, smoke alarms were not working.
Three nights earlier, police came to 150 West after an altercation broke out between Randall and Farrar, his new landlord. Farrar, a 40-year-old X‑ray technician and contractor from the Bronx, had bought 150 West in March.
Farrar showed up at the house around 11 p.m. on Wednesday, May 1.
“He was coming from the movies and decided to check on the house,” he told the police, according to a report later written by Officer Alexia Emery.
The report offers two versions of what happened next.
The first version came from the late Michael Randall, who lived in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, and from Randall’s cousin, Isaiah Branch.
Randall told the police that “he was in the kitchen with his cousin, Isaiah Branch, when Farrar entered his apartment unannounced. Randall stated that Farrar often enters his apartment unannounced using the master key.”
The landlord “aggressively walked up on Branch questioning if he lived in the apartment.” Randall stepped between them. At that point, Farrar grabbed Randall “by his neck using two hands and pushed him against the sink.”
Randall pushed the landlord away. At which point Randall told him, “If you wanna fight, let’s fight.”
A third-floor tenant, Katira Sanchez, heard the noise and came downstairs. She told police she saw Farrar “mushing Randall in the corner of the kitchen.”
A different version came from Farrar. He told police he “was having a conversation” with a second-floor tenant when he noticed Branch present. “Does he live here?” asked Farrar, which “agitated” Randall. A “verbal altercation” ensued but “never became physical” and involved “no threats of violence,” according to Farrar.
The officers decided to arrest Farrar on charges of third-degree trespassing, breach of peace, and third-degree assault. They handcuffed him and took him to 1 Union Ave.
He was subsequently released on $5,000 bond. He has not yet entered a plea.
Farrar has not responded to text and voice messages seeking comment this week. People reached at numbers listed as his have hung up when contacted by a reporter.
Randall, meanwhile, was found on the ground on the third floor of the house during the early Sunday fire. Firefighters battled dense smoke and searing heat through the narrow back stairwell, the only exit, to try to save his life. Randall was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Another Eyewitness
Jacques Bastien was also a tenant on the second floor of 150 West. He told the Independent Friday that he witnessed the altercation between Randall and Farrar.
He said the commotion awoke him.
“He busted open the door, and then him and the guy got into a scuffle,” Bastien said. He said he saw Farrar push Randall.
Bastien claimed that Farrar also busted down his bedroom door, which had been locked. He claimed Farrar had done that before. He had been arguing with Farrar since Farrar bought the house, he said. He had urged Farrar to fix an electrical problem that caused shorts after rainstorms, Bastien claimed. He also said he sought traps to catch the mice that scurried about the place. And they fought over a key that Bastien claimed Farrar wouldn’t give him to the bedroom.
“I made numerous complaints to this guy about it. It was just even hard to get some sort of conclusion on taking care of things that were around the house. It was just one big headache,” Bastien said.
Bastien shared audio from a phone call he had with Farrar when Farrar sought to collect rent from him. Farrar was seeking overdue rent for the $500 a month room; Bastien sought the keys to the building. Farrar is heard seeking to stay calm while growing frustrated about the unpaid rent. Click on the above audio to listen to the conversation.
Bastien is currently staying at the Three Judges Motel. He said he’s worried about where he’ll go next. Meanwhile, “all my medications and everything” are at 150 West St.
Farrar listed 150 West St. to police as his address, according to the report. Bastien said Farrar did not live at the house. Another tenant, Rontae Hunter, told the Independent Thursday that Farrar did not live at the house. It was not known if he was in the process of moving in when he was arrested a few days before the fire. He has a Connecticut driver’s license, according to the court file.
An earlier version of this story follows:
State Cops Join Probe; Slumlord In Court
Markeshia Ricks Photo
State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin.
The state police have been called in to help New Haven investigate this week’s deadly fire in the Hill, as the slum property’s new owner appeared in court on assault charges from an incident that occurred days earlier.
Those are new developments in the aftermath of Sunday’s fire at a crammed rooming house at 150 West St., which killed two tenants, injured four firefighters, and caused residents to leap out of windows for their lives.
The chief state medical examiner’s office Thursday identified smoke inhalation and thermal injuries as the causes of death of the two men who perished in the fire, Michael Randall and Corey Reed.
New Haven State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin Thursday told the Independent that he and local officials agreed that state police should take part in investigating both the cause of the fire and the conditions at the property, technically a two-family house where 16 people were living in rooms that in some cases had been added without building permits.
Tenants and neighbors, on the other hand, have been coming forward with troubling information. As is custom after major fires, a joint fire-police arson team based at the fire department has been on the case, along with the fire marshal. Local police are also among 12 different city agencies exploring aspects of the case, according to mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer. (Click here to read a previous story about how the Livable City Initiative, aka LCI, is examining its landlord-licensing program in the wake of the fire.)
Griffin said officials agreed “it would be cleaner” to add state police to the case.
“We brought in the state police on the cause and origin for potential arson, which is standard. Given that there was some indication that there were some code violations at the house, they asked that the state police assist on that as well,” Griffin said.
No known evidence has been reported to suggest the fire was in fact an arson. Investigators continue to probe the cause.
At issue is why, according to numerous tenants and at least one firefighter on the scene, the smoke alarms in the house never went off.
Also at issue in part is how a two-family five-bedroom house became, according to its sales listing, a seven-bedroom house in March when Dorjan Jashari of Yonkers, N.Y., sold the house for $155,000 to John L. Farrar of Bronx, N.Y. One question is whether tenants had more than one exit available from their rooms. Also, the city says it has no records of building permits taken out to remodel the house; Jashari canceled numerous appointments over the years to have LCI inspect the house so it could qualify for the city’s residential licensing program.
Landlord Arrested
Thomas Breen Photo
2nd story of 150 West after fire.
Meanwhile, property owner Farrar appeared in state court on Elm Street Thursday on charges connected to an incident that occurred at the house last Wednesday night at 11:55 p.m., three nights before the fire.
Police arrested Farrar that night on third-degree assault, second-degree breach of peace, and third-degree criminal trespass charges, according to the state judicial database. Farrar was released on $5,000 bond after his arrest.
The judge continued Farrar’s case Thursday. Farrar is being represented by the public defender’s office.
Police did not disclose details of the arrest. The Independent has reached out to Farrar repeatedly to get his version of the arrest and of the fire; people answering his listed phone numbers have hung up when answering a reporter’s calls, and text messages have gone unanswered.
Farrar, who is 40 years old, has listed his home as the Bronx in previous documents; his address is listed as 150 West in the court file of his arrest. One of the tenants, Rontae Hunter, told the Independent Thursday that Farrar did not live at the house. It was not known if he was in the process of moving in when he was arrested a few days before the fire. He has a Connecticut driver’s license, according to the court file.
He listed his occupation as X‑ray technician upon his arrest. His LinkedIn profile lists his position as “radiologic technologist” at a company called PDI. It also states that he owns a business called J and T contracting and earned an associates’ degree in radiologic technologies at CUNY Bronx Community College.
Markeshia Ricks contributed reporting.
Previous coverage:
• Files Reveal Slumlord-Chasing Challenges
• Tenants Who Escaped Deadly Fire: Smoke Alarm Didn’t Sound. Slumlord Didn’t Care
• 2 Die In Hill Fire; Tenants Leap For Lives; Questions Raised On Smoke Alarms, Exits
How can he have the money to own a house as an investment property and still qualify for a public defender? Is this dude some kind of straw owner?