Police: Stratford man arrested in hospital after gunfight with man he threatened

BRIDGEPORT — Police said a Stratford man arrested while hospitalized was on the wrong side of a gunfight with a 67-year-old man who he accused of stealing his monthly shipment of cannabis.

Akeim “Stinger” Thomas, 33, was in serious condition at Bridgeport Hospital after being shot in the abdomen, police said.

On Friday they arrested Thomas in his hospital room and charged him with attempted first-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm, second-degree threatening, first-degree reckless endangerment, risk of injury to a child, disorderly conduct and second-degree criminal mischief.

He was being held in lieu of $750,000 bond.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit of Detective Kevin Cronin, on Dec. 17, officers were dispatched to Bridgeport Hospital on the report of a gunshot victim.

The affidavit states that Thomas had been dropped off at the hospital and was in critical condition.

A short time earlier police had been dispatched to a house on Hollister Avenue for a possible home invasion, shots fired and a gas leak caused by bullets striking the stove.

The affidavit states that the resident of the first floor of the Hollister Avenue house, who has a disability and breathes with an oxygen tank, told officers that he had been renting a room to Thomas for the past seven months so that Thomas could get UPS packages of marijuana delivered there every month.

The previous week Thomas had accused the man of stealing one of his packages that Thomas said contained two pounds of marijuana, the affidavit states. Thomas told the man he was going to torture him unless he got the package back, police said.

Sometime around noon on Dec. 17, the affidavit states the resident heard Thomas yelling for him in the house and fearing for his safety pulled out the legally registered .45-caliber pistol he kept under his bedsheets.

The affidavit states that the resident saw Thomas dressed all in black and holding a military-style rifle towards him so he fired his pistol at him.

After being struck, the affidavit states that Thomas began wildly firing his rifle as the resident man fled the house.

The affidavit continues that sometime later a second floor tenant of the Hollister Avenue house began smelling gas and called the Southern Connecticut Gas Company. When gas company employees got into the first floor apartment and saw all the bullet holes they called police.

Detectives found numerous .223-caliber casings along with two .45caliber casings plus numerous bullet holes in the stove and door frame, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that at the time of the shooting there were two children in a second-floor apartment in the house.