Police discover toddler in car with guns, drugs

STAMFORD — Narcotics officers seized three loaded pistols during a harrowing bust in the Stamford Town Center mall parking garage, where they found a sleeping toddler in the back seat of a car occupied by four suspects Tuesday afternoon.

Capt. Richard Conklin said officers in the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad heard on the street that four men were en route to the Stamford mall to sell some guns and perhaps some drugs, too.

The officers set up surveillance in the mall’s parking garage and at about 5:10 p.m. spotted a two-door silver Acura that matched the provided description.

Police watched the car pull in and observed the driver get out and open up his hood, pretending to be having some mechanical problems. The narcotics officers along with uniformed officers then moved in to make arrests. They quickly discovered the little boy asleep in the car.

During their search, Conklin said they found that Victor Noel Berrios-Sanchez, 21, of New Haven, had two guns. A loaded .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol was found hidden in a sock and he also had a loaded .22-caliber revolver along with five bags of the powerful opioid fentanyl. Police also discovered BerriosSanchez had a past arrest that prohibited him from possessing either guns or ammunition.

When they pulled Nyejire Redmond, 19, of East Haven, out of the car, he told officers he had a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol in his waistband. Police looked at the serial number and determined the gun was stolen from someone in New Britain in December, Conklin said.

The driver of the car, John Medina, 25, of New Haven, was charged with driving while under suspension and risk of injury to a child, because the boy was not in a car safety seat, but just sleeping on the back seat.

Joel Cruz-Berrios, 21, of New Haven, was charged with risk of injury to a child and three conspiracy charges for weapons in a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition.

Berrios-Sanchez was held in lieu of $150,000 bail and the other three each was held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

“This was a very troubling case. These guys have lengthy criminal records and are found with three guns, and one was very recently stolen, in the same car with an 18month-old child. This was very troubling,” said Conklin. “Our (Narcotics and Organized Crime) officers did a thorough investigation and acted very quickly on this and took three more illegal firearms off the street and got an

18-month-old child in dire conditions back to his mother.”

Conklin said police contacted the state Department of Children and Families, who found the mother who lives in New Haven; she came to Stamford Hospital and retrieved the child.