Murder charges to be filed in 2019 shootout
Jailed New Haven man accused of killing West Haven man, injuring police captain
A New Haven man will be charged with murder and robbery in connection with the 2019 shooting that left a West Haven man dead and seriously injured then-Capt. Anthony Duff, who was off duty when he happened upon the shooting scene and tried to intervene.
Albert E. Eaddy, 59, will be charged with felony murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and criminal possession of a firearm, acting Chief Renee Dominguez announced Thursday afternoon.
Eaddy already was in prison on a special parole violation, where he will be served with the new charges and be subject to a new $2 million bond.
Troy Clark, 46, was shot during an apparent robbery and gunfight the night of
Aug. 12, 2019, just as an off-duty Duff came across the scene and tried to intervene. Duff was shot multiple times in the ensuing confrontation, and both he and Clark were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Clark succumbed to his injuries, and Duff his survived life-threatening wounds after emergency surgery that night.
On Thursday, Clark’s family stood alongside Duff as investigators announced they were finally bringing charges against Eaddy almost exactly two years after the shooting.
“Today’s a bittersweet day, for not only my family, but for officer Duff and also his family, because, you know, we’re all human,” said Veronica Clark, Troy Clark’s sister. “But when you take crime into your own hand, you have to pay. You have to pay the price.”
Duff, who returned to work in early 2020 and retired this spring after 25 years with the police department, said the incident changed his life and he still wishes he could have done more to save Clark that night.
“Two years ago my life changed. I’m still here, though, and as a result of that incident I saw a person die,” Duff said Thursday. “It’s something else when you’re not working and you’re just driving along and you come across something like I did and you have to make a decision. Someone there was in need of help, in this case Mr. Troy Clark, and I called it in and I chose to act. I wish I could have done more to have saved Mr. Clark. … I wish he were here.”
The Clarks and Duff praised detectives’ dogged work in the wake of the shooting and the case they have built against Eaddy, who was allegedly robbing Clark at the time of the shooting and who was on special parole after serving a sentence for a 2015 robbery conviction, court records show.
The incident began just before 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2019, when an off-duty Duff came across an active gunfight near Dixwell Avenue and Henry Street and tried to step in. Duff transmitted over police radio that he “interrupted” a shooting in progress and immediately called for backup as the shooter fled, prompting a massive police response and dayslong search across the city.
An arrest warrant detailing how the investigation developed after those initial days and ultimately zeroed in on Eaddy was not yet available.
Duff ’s injuries sent shock waves throughout the state’s law enforcement community, and his release from the hospital was celebrated with rows and rows of officers cheering and saluting him. He said the first thing he did, though, was attend Clark’s funeral.
Clark’s family thanked Duff for his actions that night and said Clark should be remembered as a caring, joyful person.
“He was a person that didn’t mind helping you,” Veronica Clark said. “Sometimes he would put himself at risk, knowing it wasn’t the right thing to do, but my brother was a caring person. He loved joking. He loved laughing. He loved old cars — that was his passion, for cars.”
Homicides have risen in the Elm City this year, as they have in cities across Connecticut and the country over the past 18 months, and the news conference Thursday afternoon to announce the charges against Eaddy began instead with an update on the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Tyshaun Hargrove late Wednesday night. Hargrove’s death was the 19th of the year, a 20% increase over number of homicides recorded in New
Haven at this point last year, police data show.
Dominguez and Mayor Justin Elicker both stressed that they were able to bring charges in Clark’s case because witnesses and people with information about the crime shared those details with detectives, no matter how small, and they pleaded for the same in all of the cases they are investigating this year.
“We talk a lot about justice, and I go to every wake of every homicide victim, and I hear consistently from families and friends that we want to see justice,” Elicker said. “Justice can bring a little sense of peace. Justice also helps us ensure that the individual that took Troy’s life will not take someone else’s life. But justice can never bring Troy back, and I’m deeply, deeply sorry for your loss and the pain you have experienced.”