Stamford police make arrest in daytime shooting
STAMFORD — Police have made their first arrest in a daytime shooting that resulted in lockdown at Westover Magnet Elementary School just over a week ago.
Dhakedi Jackson, 23, of Riverside Avenue, was charged Tuesday with hindering prosecution and attempted hindering prosecution and was released after posting a $15,000 court appearance bond. He is not accused of being one of the gunmen in the incident.
Reached by phone Thursday, Jackson declined comment on his arrest.
Lt. Tom Scanlon said the investigation is continuing into the Monday, Nov. 23 incident in which two men fired 16 bullets at each other on Myano Lane at 2:17 p.m., forcing a lockdown at the nearby elementary school. It was the second time in less than a week that the school was locked down due to shots being fired in the neighborhood.
On Thursday, Nov. 19, the city closed off parts of the West Side after gun shots were fired on Connecticut Avenue at 3:13 p.m. Police later found at least four shell casings at a nearby residential property. Westover was shut down just as students and teachers were getting ready for dismissal, which is at 3:30 p.m.
No one was reported injured in either incident. Tuesday’s arrest was the first made in relation to either.
The arrest was made, according to Scanlon, because residents in the neighborhood who witnessed the gun fight cooperated with investigators, a helping hand that he said has been lacking with such calls in the recent past.
Crime scene investigators called to the scene found eight shell casings on the roadway in front of 95 Myano Lane and eight more in the grass in the area of 122 Myano Lane. The location of the casings, Scanlon said, indicated that a shootout had taken place.
Witnesses told police that seconds after the shots were fired they saw a white SUV that was double parked on the street make a U-turn. As it rolled southbound down the street the vehicle picked up a limping man, believed to be one of the gunmen, police said, before fleeing the area at a high rate of speed, and jumping a curb while turning onto Catoona Lane. Based on the description of the vehicle, witness statements and investigators’ familiarity with Jackson, who has two firearm convictions on his record, they went to Jackson’s residence a short time later and found fresh evidence of gunfire damage to a white Hundai Santa Fe, SUV, Scanlon said.
“Witnesses saw someone with a firearm get into the SUV and flee the area,” Scanlon said, adding that investigators believe Jackson was driving the Hundai, which he admitted to, according to the affidavit.
But police said Jackson mislead them during questioning.
“During the course of the investigation the investigators were able to determine that Jackson provided them with inaccurate information,” Scanlon said. “The details, investigators were able to show through a variety of means, were inaccurate.”
Scanlon said the investigation into both shooting incidents is active and ongoing.
“This case is a good example of what can happen when people in the community come forward and provide timely information to police, which hasn’t been the case in many of the previous shooting incidents we have had where we have been met with little or no information,” Scanlon said.