The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Man shoots wife, 2 officers
4 wounded as domestic dispute leads to standoff, gunfire
NEW HAVEN — A gunman whom police described as an estranged husband shot three people — his 51-year-old wife and two police officers who responded to the scene — Saturday morning and holed-up in a house at 638-640 Elm St. keeping police at bay for about four-and-a-half hours before being shot by police, police spokesman Officer David Hartman said Saturday.
When officers entered the house, John Douglas Monroe, 51, “engaged with officers at the basement door, pointing a long gun at the officers. He was shot by officers,” Hartman said.
Monroe was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was in serious but stable condition. Medical staff there told police they didn’t believe his injuries were life-threatening, Hartman said.
“We don’t know exactly yet why all of this happened,” he said.
The woman, whom police had yet to identify, was shot four times — in the hand, arm, back and chest — at 638-640 Elm St.
about 10:20 a.m., then ran to a neighbor’s home at 642 Elm and was in critical condition and undergoing surgery after being taken to Yale New Haven Hospital, Hartman and other sources said.
Officers Eric Pessino and Scott Shumway were each shot once in the arm as they were entering 638 Elm, Hartman said.
Because the incident included an officer-involved shooting, the investigation was turned over to the Major Crimes Squad of Connecticut State Police once the crime scene was secured, said Patrick Griffin, New Haven state’s attorney.
“This is now an active investigation,” Griffin said. He said the state’s attorney’s protocol calls for state policeto investigate any incident of a police officer’s use of force to make sure that the investigation “is independent, objective and transparent.”
“We intend to carry out that mandate,” Griffin said, adding he would not comment on any aspect of the investigation.
The initial shots rang out Saturday morning as an anti-gun violence march and rally was going on not too far away in the Newhallville neighborhood.
At approximately 2 p.m., people outside the police perimeter, which was set up for two blocks in each direction, heard a series of gunshots — several loud noises followed by a series of rapid-fire shots. Soon afterward, an individual not connected to law enforcement but with knowledge of the case told the New Haven Register that police had entered the house and wounded the suspect.
A city official later confirmed that police entered the house, encountered the suspect and fired on him, wounding him. He was taken to the hospital and police secured the scene. Soon after, SWAT officers could be seen walking away from the scene and stowing their gear in trucks staged in the nearby parking lot of the Stop & Shop store, located just inside the perimeter between Whalley Avenue and Elm Street, just south of Orchard Street.
“Right now, we have had no luck with trying to reach the perpetrator inside the home,” Hartman said a short time before police entered the house. Police used a number of different tactics and strategies to contact the gunman, including calling phone numbers provided by people he knows and planned to use a powerful loud speaker system to contact him, Hartman said.
“It’s very important that folks avoid this area,” Hartman said at the time. “There is a significant and very real, tangible threat of gunfire. We don’t want people even in their backyards or trying to walk down the street. The streets are closed off for what should be an eight-block area.”
Hartman said “at this point, they believe that the suspect is the only individual inside the house. The only other person at the home at the time is in the hospital.”
Police conducted “systematic evacuations” of nearby homes using armored vehicles, he said.
Multiple agencies responded to the emergency including at least one member of the West Haven police Street Crime Unit, the New Haven Fire Department and the Yale Police Department. Wallingford and the Connecticut State Police also provided resources, including armored vehicles, and at least one FBI agent and at least six representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were on the scene.
Hartman said police responded to the scene after neighbors heard gunshots.
“Right now, this is a very active scene,” Hartman said, standing in the middle of Elm near the Stop & Shop plaza.
Dozens of onlookers lined the street and police moved the yellow “Police Line: Do Not Cross” tape farther from the house twice after initially putting it up just north of Orchard Street.
“We are urging — we are demanding — that people avoid the area . ... It’s going to be a very unpleasant encounter” for spectators whether they encounter police or the danger posed by the gunman, Hartman said.
Officer Pessino was grazed in the arm, and Officer Shumway was shot in the arm, Hartford said.
Alder Frank Douglass, D-2, who lives within a block of the Dwight-area site, said he had heard that the incident started as a domestic dispute and that a woman was shot inside a house on the other end of his block. He said that the neighborhood is a safe one and had grown safer in recent years.
“The neighborhood, I believe, is a lot safer than it used to be,” Douglass said.
Jane Kinity lives down the street on Elm Street and had attended the anti-violence rally in Newhallville. When she returned home, she saw the massive police presence in her neighborhood.
“We’re tired of this,” she said. “I’m tired of this.”
Bobby Forman, of Goffe Street, views domestic violence as a big problem all over the world.
In his experience, domestic violence that ends in gunplay seems like more of a suburban problem than inner-city problem.
“It’s a different kind of gun violence in the inner city.”
Mayor Toni Harp cut short a business trip to Washington, D.C. after being informed of the shootings, New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell said during a late afternoon press conference at the city’s police headquarters.
“I’m so grateful the two officers shot in the line of duty today weren’t wounded more seriously,” Harp said in a statement. “Likewise, I’m grateful for the effective, professional response by the NHPD in the face of today’s violence. All of us in New Haven appreciate the potential risk police officers face daily — and thank them for taking on that responsibility.”
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy also praised the work of police, especially the officers who were shot.
“Our thoughts are with the injured responders, Officers Eric Pessino and Scott Shumway, the victim, as well as all their families and friends,” Malloy said in a statement. “While this remains an active investigation and we do not presume to know all the details regarding this particular situation, we are also reminded today of our moral obligation to work to prevent domestic violence and the many needless tragedies that occur as a result.”