NAACP demands state handle death probe
BRIDGEPORT — The Greater Bridgeport NAACP is urging Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo to take over the investigation of the events at the Keystone Club that led to the death of Nyair Charles Nixon.
“Considering the current federal investigation in the city of Bridgeport involving (the) Police Department and Civil Service, we are requesting your assistance,” the Rev. D. Stanley Lord wrote in a letter to Colangelo.
The FBI continues to probe the selection of former Police Chief Armando Perez to the top cop spot. Perez and former Personnel Director David Dunn have pleaded guilty to rigging the selection process and lying to the FBI about it.
“Given the current public distrust of police, the number of violent and deadly gun actions, and specifically ... the murder of ... Nayir Nixon indicates how out of control things have come to,” wrote Lord, president of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP.
This is the second request made to Colangelo. Last week, state Sen. Marilyn Moore D-Bridgeport, also urged the chief state’s attorney to take over the case.
Moore welcomed the support to her request.
“We must stand together as a community and demand transparency,” she said. “It would be good for the community if the mayor would support an outside investigation.”
Moore added that the “lack of confidence that exists regarding ethics and transparency within our municipal government ... ultimately undermines our belief and trust that the conditions that contributed to the murder of Nyair” will be investigated completely.
The requests by Moore and the NAACP have the backing of Bridgeport Generation Now, said Gemeem Davis, a co-founder of the community activist group.
“We’re not comfortable with the current state of affairs in the city and its police department,” Davis said Monday. “There is a lot going on.”
Nixon died Sept. 27 after allegedly being shot inside Keystone, 1794 Barnum Ave., and then stumbling out on the street, where he was struck by a hit-andrun driver, police said. No arrest has been made in his homicide, which is still under investigation by local police.
Last week, police arrested the club’s manager, Eneida Martinez, a City Council member, and charged her with seconddegree reckless endangerment and 10 counts of the illegal sale of alcohol.
Martinez did not immediately respond to email or phone calls made Monday.
Days after Nixon was shot, nearly 60 relatives and friends rallied in front of the Keystone, which is now shuttered, and called for the FBI to take over the investigation. Hundreds
attended Nixon’s funeral last week at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Union Avenue.
“This city is a failure,” Nixon’s father, Charles Nixon, said last week. “If you got kids here, I tell
you to get them out of here.”
The city’s health department is investigating whether any state and local COVID-19 guidelines were violated in the operation of the former topless
bar turned social club.
In his letter to Colangelo, Lord said Nixon’s family “deserves an investigation that is fair and equal to the best the department can offer and allows justice to proceed.”