Police: Man wanted for shooting boy, 2, in CT home
WATERBURY — Police are looking for a suspect they’ve identified in a shooting Tuesday that left a 2year-old boy critically injured.
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo identified the man being sought as 20-year-old Kharis Samuels who is last to have been known living on Ridgeway Street in Waterbury. Spagnolo said Samuels was visiting and hanging out with an older sibling of the 2year-old, showing off a gun, when it went off.
The .380 caliber bullet struck the 2-year-old in the torso while he was in a walker, Spagnolo said.
“There was no altercation that we know of, no disturbance that occurred,” Spagnolo said. It was the only bullet fired, police said.
The family did not call 911, but instead tended to the child and took him to Waterbury Hospital, where police said they were first made aware of the shooting at 1:35 p.m. Tuesday, Spagnolo said. Investigators then determined the crime scene was located on Pinecrest Drive where the child lives, police said.
Spagnolo said two other children age 10 and under were present in the home when the shooting occurred. Samuels fled the scene as family members were assisting the child and
is being sought by police, Spagnolo said.
Spagnolo said the public should consider him armed and dangerous — the weapon was not recovered — and should use caution around him. Rapid DNA and ballistic tests were integral in identifying Samuels as the shooter, Spagnolo said.
Police said three children were present in the home along with their 21-year-old male sibling and the children’s grandmother. All four kids live with their grandmother on Pinecrest Drive, the chief said.
Police have been to the house three times since August 2020, twice while assisting other agencies who wanted to speak to someone in the home, Spagnolo said.
Samuels has a warrant out for his arrest from Bristol for robbery, and has ties to Florida and New York, according to police. He is facing a number of charges in connection with the shooting, including firstdegree assault and risk of injury to a child, police said.
Spagnolo said it was the first time in his 29 years with the department that the quiet west-end neighborhood had a shooting. The 2-year-old and his siblings live in a single-family home on the street, which is dotted with vibrant gardens. Two bicycles were propped against the home Wednesday afternoon. A woman who answered the door, declined to be interviewed.
Neighbors said the street is usually quiet, but one resident said “a lot of people” are often at the house where the boy was shot.
“My daughter heard the shot and then heard a lot of screaming,” said one neighbor, who declined to provide his name.
The state Department of Children and Families has been notified, according to police.
The boy was flown from Waterbury Hospital to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford where he was listed in stable but critical condition Wednesday, Spagnolo said.
The shooting was the latest in an increase in gun violence in the city, Spagnolo said. Since Jan. 1 there have been 44 victims of gunfire, compared with 20 during the same time period last year. The number of shots-fired incidents — 145 — more than doubled this year when compared to the first six months of last year when 65 incidents of gunfire had occurred, Spagnolo said.