Danbury team pleads guilty in mall fight case

DANBURY — The teen arrested for his alleged involvement in the fight that led to a shooting at the Danbury Fair mall last summer has pleaded guilty to one of six charges brought against him.

Derek Sotelo, 19, has pleaded guilty to the class D felony charge of attempt to commit second-degree assault stemming from the August 2021 incident that resulted in a girl getting shot and a more-than-hourlong lockdown of the mall.

Danbury police responded to a report of shots fired at the mall around 7 p.m. Aug. 11, and found the 15-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the left side of her throat.

She was transported to Danbury Hospital with a fractured vertebrae and later transported to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford for further treatment, according to police.

The shooting stemmed from a fight at the mall carnival two months prior, during which Sotelo was allegedly jumped by a group of juveniles, according to the warrant for his arrest.

Police said the 14-year-old boy accused of firing the shot that wounded the 15-year-old girl and subsequently charged with firstdegree assault is believed to have been one of the juveniles who attacked Sotelo at the carnival.

A witness who was at the mall with Sotelo and the 15-year-old girl Aug. 11, told police a group — identified as the “Ridge Kids” — started yelling and clapping at them and Sotelo recognized the group as those who had jumped him at the carnival.

According to police, Sotelo grabbed a hammer from a car parked outside and was joined by four friends before walking back into the mall through Macy’s.

Danbury police said surveillance footage showed the 14-year-old accused shooter sitting alone on a chair inside the mall near Macy’s, and Sotelo taking a seat on a nearby couch.

They were joined a short time later by their respective groups and “things (got) heated” after someone allegedly asked the “Ridge Kids” if they had a problem with her friends, according to the warrant for Sotelo’s arrest.

Police said video footage showed the 14-year-old boy getting up from his chair and back-pedaling toward Jenny’s Spa before pulling a gun from his waistband and firing at least one shot, striking the 15-yearold girl.

Sotelo allegedly lunged toward the shooter with a hammer in his right hand, according to the warrant for his arrest, and the suspected shooter ran away in the opposite direction of Macy’s.

Police said Sotelo then ran back into Macy’s and out of the exit before discarding the hammer in the parking lot.

In addition to criminal attempt to commit second-degree assault, Sotelo is also facing first-degree reckless endangerment, inciting a riot, inciting injury to a person, risk of injury to a minor and breach of peace charges.

He remains held on a $150,000 court-set bond and has a disposition hearing scheduled for July 28 at state Superior Court in Danbury.