Stemming gun violence

What would help them stem the gun violence racking their communities?

Gov. Ned Lamont, responding to Hartford’s request for help addressing an uptick in gun violence, is taking a broad look at the existing police resources and needs in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport. Lamont has asked to assess the police resources in those cities, the interactions and partnerships they already have with state police, and what would help them stem the gun violence racking their communities.

HARTFORD – Gov. Ned Lamont, responding to Hartford’s request for help addressing an uptick in gun violence, is taking a broad look at the existing police resources and needs in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

Lamont has asked Public Safety Commissioner James C. Rovella to assess the police resources in those cities, the interactions and partnerships they already have with state police, and what would help them stem the gun violence racking their communities, said Maribel La Luz, Lamont’s communications director.

On Tuesday, days after Hartford experienced its 15th homicide of the year, Mayor Luke Bronin announced that he was asking the state for several specific resources: a dedicated prosecutor for gun violence cases and two state workers, from the parole and corrections departments, to embed themselves with Hartford police.

La Luz said Lamont wants to step back and take a look at “the whole

picture” surrounding gun violence in the state’s big cities.

She noted that Bridgeport and New Haven have also seen a surge in gun violence this summer.

“Working with each department and local municipality, the state stands ready, willing and able to assist in the most appropriate and helpful way possible,” La Luz said.

Four people have been killed in New Haven this year, according to the New Haven Register.

Last week, a joint investigation between the FBI and New Haven police indicted 25 people on gangrelated, drug trafficking charges, as part of “a collaboration to reduce gun violence” in the city, New Haven Police Chief Otoniel Reyes announced.

The group included one Hartford resident, 23-year-old Prishonna “Nonnie” Turner.

In Bridgeport, 17-year-old Sean Warren became the city’s 11th homicide victim after he was shot in the chest late Friday night, according to the Connecticut Post. He was the second person in Bridgeport killed by gunfire this month, after a 22-year-old man was shot to death on July 4.

And in Hartford, police are investigating a possible connection between the Friday night slaying of Anthony Wright and the July 8 shooting death of Malcolm Carr, both in the same area of Main Street in Clay Arsenal. Antoine Keaton, 27, of Hartford has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a firearm in Wright’s death.

Hartford’s anti-violence groups organized Saturday to inundate the neighborhoods with community leaders and prevention workers, like COMPASS Peacebuilders, Mothers United Against Violence and Men and Women of Color.

They held cookouts and cleanups, worked the crowds during the Riverfront Fireworks and marched the streets until 2 a.m.

Bronin applauded the community groups’ work at a news conference Tuesday, and their “unprecedented level of cooperation” with each other, police and city officials.

But he and interim Police Chief Jason Thody said the city could use more help from the state.

One corrections worker is already located at the police department, but they would like to see one more, as well a parole worker. Those partnerships are more effective, they said, than interrupting the state agencies’ own work to ask for help on individual cases.

State staff who immerse themselves in local departments can act as a conduit to the state, Thody said, “so you don’t have to pick up the phone and call and say, ‘There’s a crisis.’”

“You don’t get the full story unless you’re in the room.”