Photo By Eugene Driscoll
Police officers on Division Street.
ANSONIA-DERBY — A Derby police officer shot a person who was shooting at a vehicle on Division Street Monday morning. Neighbors said the person, described as a young male, said he was shot in the leg. His injuries didn’t appear life-threatening. Click here for an update.
Confusion, Then Gunshots
According to initial interviews at the scene and confirmed later at a press conference, a Derby police officer was in his patrol car stopped at a light on Division Street at Clifton Avenue/Atwater Avenue heading toward Griffin Hospital when chaos ensued.
Two men approached his car saying they needed help. They banged on this windows.
“I got two guys hoppin in my car. Get out of my car. Saying they’re being chased by somebody,” the officer says in a radio transmission (embedded below).
Eight seconds later, the officer yells “shots fired, shots fired” into his radio.
One of the men seeking help had apparently walked toward the sidewalk, pulled out a gun, and started firing at a passing car on Division Street.
The Derby police officer shot the person who had fired at the car. The car was stopped at the bottom of Division Street at Pershing Drive (and is the last photo in this story).
The person shot by the Derby officer was taken to the hospital. He was in stable condition. The person he was with was taken into custody immediately after the incident. No charges against anyone had been announced as of 1 p.m.
A woman interviewed by WTNH related to the person shot disputed the police account of the shooting.
This audio below contains the initial emergency dispatch. The story continues after the embed.
Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Police put a cone next to what appeared to be a handgun on Division Street.
Neighbors
Two people who live in a house next to the shooting said they heard gunshots that sounded like they were coming from different guns at about 7:15 a.m.
A neighbor said he looked out his window and saw a young man on the sidewalk saying he had been shot in the leg. A second young man wearing a red sweatshirt with the wounded man was telling the officer, “Don’t shoot me, I’m just a kid. Don’t shoot me.” The witness said the officer said he would not shoot him but he needed to get on the ground.
The witness said he yelled at the young man to listen to the officer.
The vehicle that was allegedly shot at was on the bottom of Division Street, across from the Cumberland Farms gas station. Bullet holes could be seen in the vehicle.
Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Looking down Division Street.
Gun Recovered At Scene
At 7:15 a.m., a small handgun, or something that looked like a handgun, could be seen next to the curb on Division Street where the shooting happened.
A young man who was with the man police shot was handcuffed in a police car as of 9:30 a.m. A female who appeared to be his relative was crying while talking on a cell phone, telling police she wanted to talk to her baby.
The shooting happened in the jurisdiction of the Ansonia Police Department. In police shootings, the state police are often brought in as an outside agency to investigate what happened. The state’s attorney’s office from Danbury was requested to come to the scene.
Division Street between Pershing Drive and Clifton Avenue was closed for hours.
No Bodycam Footage
At an 11:45 a.m. press conference, state police and Derby Police Chief Gerald Narowski said the state’s attorney’s office out of Danbury had directed the state police to handle the use of force investigation. Narowski confirmed a Derby police officer had shot a person in the leg and confirmed the preliminary details of the incident as described above.
Narowski, responding to a question from the media, said the Derby officer was not equipped with a body camera.
The officer’s name was not released, nor were the names of the person shot, the man he was with, or the people in the car that was shot at.
Also unknown: the relationship, if any, between the alleged shooter and the occupants of the car at which he shot.
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Photo by Eugene Driscoll
This vehicle was included in the crime scene on Division Street. The person who was shot by police fired at this vehicle, according to initial reports from the scene.
