New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Police: Man free on bond on gun charges found with loaded gun outside Trumbull mall
BRIDGEPORT — A Norwalk man free on bond on two separate gun possession cases and on probation for assault convictions was charged after police said they found him in the back seat of a car with a loaded gun outside the Trumbull mall Thursday.
Shayaa Brown, 23, of Broad Street, Norwalk, was arrested with two other people by members of the State Police Gang Task
Force and Trumbull police.
Police said the three had been driving around the area allegedly selling hallucinogenic mushrooms and Xanax pills from their car.
Brown was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, stealing a firearm, illegal transfer of a firearm, illegal possession of a large magazine and two counts of violation of probation.
“That’s not fair, that’s not fair,” Brown yelled from his cell in the Golden Hill Street courthouse Friday afternoon as Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton ordered him held in lieu of $350,000 bond.
He then yelled to his mother, who was watching on video from a courtroom, to post his bond. “I can’t stay in here Mom, get me out,” he yelled.
The judge pointed out that Brown had been free on bond after being arrested in July 2018 in Stamford and May 25, 2020, in Norwalk for allegedly possessing a handgun.
She continued the new case to April 30.
The two people arrested Thursday with Brown, Samantha Piona, 20, and Justin Thompson, 24, both of Milford, were released after posting bond.
Thompson was charged with possession of hallucinogens with intent to sell and possession of marijuana while Piona was charged with having no registration or insurance on her car.
According to police, members of the gang task force received information that Thompson, who is free on bond for an alleged hit and run crash that killed a 21-year-old man in Hamden last July, was traveling between Stamford and Milford selling numerous amounts of Xanax pills.
On Thursday, police said, task force members spotted a blue Chevrolet sedan that had been identified as belonging to Thompson’s girlfriend, Piona, parked in the lot at Bass Pro Shops here. Police said during a surveillance, officers saw what appeared to be drug deals being made from the car.
Police said task force members followed the Chevrolet as it left the parking lot and drove to the Westfield Trumbull Mall, parking in the garage adjacent to the Target store. Additional police officers were called to the scene after surveillance determined that one of the car’s occupants was sitting in the back seat holding what appeared to be a handgun, police said.
As Thompson got out of the car, officers converged on it arresting Thompson, Piona and Brown, police said.
“I don’t have a gun, there’s Xanax and ‘shrooms in the car,” police said Thompson yelled.
However, police continued, that they found Thompson in the back seat of the car along with a .40caliber handgun equipped with laser sight and loaded with a 14-round magazine. They said Brown said the gun was his.
Police said during a search of the car they found two bags of marijuana, a small bag containing fentanyl, 97 Xanax pills and a bag containing hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Police said Thompson told officers he was selling drugs to pay his bondsman for the hit and run case and denied knowing Brown had a gun. They said Piona told them she and Thompson had only recently met Brown who had been staying at a Milford motel.