Police close part of West Side after shooting

Shots were fired near Westover School, Brennan Golf Course

STAMFORD — City police closed off part of the West Side Thursday afternoon — near the E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course and Westover Magnet Elementary School — after gun shots were fired nearby.

Capt. Richard Conklin said the shots were heard by an officer in the area working an extra duty job at an water main break. Witnesses told police that six shots were fired on Connecticut Avenue at 3:13 p.m. Police found at least four shell casings at the reported location, a nearby residential property.

Conklin said there were no reported injuries as a result of the gunshots, which were fired minutes before the school’s dismissal Thursday.

Conklin said the shooting suspect was a Black male about 5 foot 7 inches tall wearing a red hoodie, a black mask and gray sweat pants with a black stripe. He was last seen running up Connecticut Avenue towards the Rippowam Park Apartments leasing office.

Police officers flooded the area, closing off both ends of Connecticut Avenue as well as parts of Stillwater Avenue as the hunt for the subject went on. By 3:24 p.m. with many officers in the area, the decision was made to let the school’s dismissal for the day proceed.

Police notified Stamford Hospital that shots had been fired, but no one was reported to have gone to the hospital injured by gunfire.

Conklin said Connecticut Avenue has been the scene of at least two shooting calls over the past several months. On October 11 three cars were damaged by gunfire during an overnight shooting. On May 25 a man was shot in the leg during a shootout near the south end of Connecticut Avenue.

There have been many incidents of shots fired in the city since March. Scanlon said many seem to involve the same groups of people, who come from different Stamford neighborhoods and apparently have disputes between them.

Most recently, two men were shot on Fairfield Avenue earlier this month.