Police: Dispute over relationship led to West Hartford shooting
WEST HARTFORD — An argument “over a relationship” led to a 22-yearold shooting a man on the University of Saint Joseph campus before ramming his car and firing more shots at him early Friday, police said.
The shooting sparked a multi-state search when the suspect, who police identified as Darnell
Barnes, was believed to have fled to Massachusetts on Friday.
“This incident was isolated between three individuals,” West Hartford Police Lt. Thomas Lazure said, referring to Barnes, the victim and a female student at the school.
West Hartford police were notified Sunday night that Barnes surrendered with his attorney at the Farmington Police Department, Lazure said during a news conference Monday.
Police charged Barnes on an arrest warrant with first-degree assault, firstdegree reckless endangerment, second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, first-degree criminal mischief and evading responsibility. He was held on $1 million bond and is due to appear for his arraignment Monday in state Superior Court in Hartford.
Lazure said detectives found “additional evidence” over the weekend to also charge Barnes with criminal attempt at murder and unlawful discharge of a firearm. Barnes possessed a valid pistol permit, which has since been revoked, Lazure said. He said the gun involved in the shooting, a 9 mm, has not been recovered.
The incident occurred early Friday on the university campus, police have confirmed.
“There was an altercation at the university where shots were fired at the victim,” Lazure said.
After the shots rang out, the victim fled in a vehicle and appears to have been pursued by Barnes, according to Lazure.
“This incident continued from the University of Saint Joseph on to Albany Avenue, where a vehicle that the suspect was driving made contact with the victim’s vehicle,” he said.
The force of the collision caused the victim’s vehicle to roll over, “and additional shots were fired” on Albany Avenue near the Cavalry Church, Lazure said.
“By the grace of God, nobody died,” Lazure said.
“There were rounds being fired and it’s on a college campus,” he added, calling it a “senseless act of violence.”
After the motor vehicle collision and second round of gunfire, police said Barnes fled in his vehicle. The vehicle was located later on Friday on the Massachusetts Turnpike just north of the Connecticut border, police said.
The vehicle was seized and will be processed by West Hartford detectives, Lazure said.
All three of the individuals “do know each other,” Lazure told reporters, calling the altercation that sparked the shooting “relationship related.”
Lazure did not release the identity of the victim, who he described as a man in his 20s. He said the man is expected to recover, although it remained unclear Monday whether he was still in the hospital.
Barnes, who is not a student at the school, invoked his fifth amendment right and was not interviewed by police, Lazure said.
“This town’s not used to this type of stuff, but we were ready,” he said. “It’s scary, we don’t want people committing acts of violence anywhere, but it just heightens our level of alertness when it happens on campus with students at dark, at night.”