Homicide victims identified

BRIDGEPORT — Police on Monday identified a Derby teen and Bridgeport man killed in a shooting on Sunday that investigators say was linked to an ongoing dispute.

Gunshots rang out just before 1 a.m. Sunday in the area of a former sports bar on Connecticut Avenue.

Arriving officers found three gunshot wound victims who were rushed to Bridgeport Hospital by medics; A fourth victim showed up at the hospital by a private vehicle, police said.

Capt. Brian Fitzgerald said 19-year- old Jaheim Warren of Derby and 24-year- old Andrew Stephenson of Bridgeport were pronounced dead at the hospital.

A 26-year-old man sustained serious injuries but is expected to survive. A 21-year-old man suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

“Both were likely shot as the result of an ongoing dispute,” Fitzgerald said. “The surviving victims do not appear to have been intended targets.”

On Jan. 27, Warren was sitting in a car in front of the Golden Hill Street courthouse with three other men when the car was riddled with bullets. Warren suffered a gunshot that police said grazed his ribs. The other men in the car were more seriously wounded. Federal prosecutors later charged five men who they said were members of a rival gang with the shooting.

Fitzgerald said Monday that the two shootings is “likely not connected.”

Sunday’s shooting happened at 456 Connecticut Ave., the former address of Mango’z sports bar. Fitzgerald said the establishment currently does not have a valid license to sell alcohol or operate as a bar.

First responders said the bar appeared crowded at the time with a number of people not wearing masks.

Fitzgerald said the bar has been operating as a private club with people renting out the facility and bringing in their own liquor.

“It’s been a problem that we have been trying to deal with,” he said.

Fitzgerald said the “circumstances surrounding who owns the bar and why it was open are the subject of this ongoing investigation.”

He said responding officers that night were met by a large uncooperative crowd and had to call in mutual aid from Stratford and state police to help with crowd control at the crime scene and Bridgeport Hospital.

On Monday, there were a number of bullet holes on the outside of the Connecticut Avenue building, but Fitzgerald said the shooting allegedly occurred inside.

A small memorial had been set up outside the bar Monday morning with balloons and candles.

The bar, at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Fifth Street, had been the scene of a number of shootings and homicides in the past when it was previously called Side Effect West.