Cops make arrest in West Side shootings
STAMFORD — Police on Tuesday arrested a juvenile involved in a shootout on West Broad Street that seriously injured a 56-yearold Stamford Hospital worker who was struck by a bullet while driving home on Sunday afternoon.
The East Side resident is charged with attempted first-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm, criminal use of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm. The youth’s name is not being released because of his age.
He is also a suspect in other recent West Side shootings, which caused officials to lock down Westover Magnet Elementary School, according to an arrest warrant.
The shooting that led to the arrest occurred at 4:16 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 on West Broad Street and Delaware Avenue.
The juvenile and another male were walking down West Broad Street, police said, when another man ambushed them and began shooting at them. The gunman fired five shots at the juveniles, one of which hit the passing hospital worker, police said.
The juvenile who was arrested Tuesday ran toward the gunman man and fired a single return shot, police said.
None of the intended targets were wounded. Police recovered six 9mm shell casings ejected by the two firearms.
Sometime later, police found the juvenile on a nearby Connecticut Avenue property, adjacent to Westover School, and after interviewing him determined he had been one of the people who had been shot at Sunday afternoon, Scanlon said.
The next morning investigators and patrol officers returned to the area and found a 9mm Glock pistol, which police believe was the one the youth used to return fire, hidden under pallets of wood about 200 feet away from where the youth was questioned, Scanlon said
The lieutenant said the pistol turned out to have been stolen out of South Carolina.
According to a recent arrest warrant, the arrested youth is also a suspect in two other shootings that happened on the West Side last month.
On Nov. 19 shots were fired at a residential property on Connecticut Avenue. That incident was followed Nov. 23 by another shooting on Mayano Lane in which 16 shots were fired from two different semiautomatic handguns.
Both incidents happened near the Westover School property, and caused school officials and police to lock the building down with kids inside.
Scanlon would not comment on the investigations except to say they are ongoing
The youth was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at the Stamford courthouse. Judge John Blawie ordered the boy held in lieu of a $500,000 court appearance bond and he was transported to the juvenile detention center in Bridgeport Thursday afternoon.