The Valley was rocked by a spree of shootings and violence this year.
This story tops the Valley Independent Sentinel list for the second half of the year because of its impact on the whole community.
The crimes were serious, sometimes deadly and left a lot of questions and concerns for Valley residents.
The shootings also had some bizarre – and often times coincidental – connections to each other.
“It seemed like it was a pattern: Every three years someone would get killed,” said Ansonia resident Malika Mosley, the president of the Riverside Apartment Complex tenant association. “I’ve lived here six years. It went from every three years to every month.”
It started the day before the Valley Independent Sentinel launch.
Woman Fatally Stabbed
A fight broke out June 21 during a Father’s Day picnic at the Riverside Apartment Complex on Olson Drive.
A 22-year-old woman, Jennifer Lewis, was stabbed to death on a balcony of one of the apartments.
Lewis was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police quickly arrested another woman, 26-year-old Tiffany Perry.
Perry’s court case for the murder charge has been transfered to Superior Court in Milford, where she is scheduled to appear next on Jan. 8.
Shots Into A Crowd
The next victim was Bernice McFadden, 39.
On July 15, McFadden was standing in a crowd of people outside one of the apartments on Olson Drive, when a man came up to the crowd and fired several shots.
McFadden was the only one killed in the shooting, which has left police searching for a suspect ever since.
In August, police released a sketch of a “person of interest,” but no one has been arrested yet.
Police haven’t said whether the two Olson Drive killings were connected.
Ambush
Then on Aug. 28, three men allegedly ambushed a man leaving work at about 3:40 p.m. on Chapel Street in Derby.
Police said three men in a car crashed into Kierron Stanely’s truck, then opened fired at Stanely. They fired five shots, then fled the scene on foot.
Stanley was sent to the hospital with non-lifethreatening injuries, and police later that day arrested Daycus Bailey, 26, Steven Cook, 28 and Robert Smith, 28.
Morning Shooting
Nine days later, Rodney Baldwin, 25, of Hawthorne Avenue in Derby was fatally shot in the head as he walked home from buying cigarettes at a local store.
The shooting happened at about 9:30 a.m..
Police haven’t caught the person responsible.
Friends and family of Baldwin suspected the shooting was related to the ambush shooting on Aug. 28, and said a man named “Keyshawn” was responsible.
Unexplained Shootings
On Oct. 19, another man was shot – this time in Shelton.
He was walking in the area of Division Avenue and Hill Street when he was shot in the left buttocks.
Police said the man suffered only minor injuries, and that he wouldn’t cooperate to help police find a suspect.
Then on Oct. 22, 14 bullets were lodged into two separate cars in Ansonia. No one was hurt, and police have not found the shooter or shooters.
Shots Fired In Front Of Children
The latest shooting was back at the Riverside Apartments on Olson Drive in Ansonia.
Tyrease Gatison, 22, was shot in the leg when a man walked into apartment no. 50 and demanded money, police said.
A couple of days later, with help from witnesses, police arrested Jamar Perry of New Haven.
Gattison suffered minor injuries, but police said the shooting took place in front of two small children in the middle of the afternoon.
The Connections
Police believe the Derby shootings are connected to each other, and to other violence in New Haven.
Two of the men arrested for the Chapel Street ambush grew up at the Olson Drive apartment complex where several other shootings have taken place.
And Jamar Perry, who was arrested for allegedly shooting Tyrease Gatison in the leg in November, told police his sister was Tiffany Perry, the woman who was arrested for allegedly stabbing Jennifer Lewis to death back in June.
Ansonia police said the relation is coincidental, and they don’t believe the November shooting and the stabbing are related.
The Reaction
Specifically at the Riverside Apartments, residents were outraged, and swiftly tried to make changes.
They organized a peace rally and fought for stronger control from the Ansonia Housing Authority to prevent more crimes.
The peace rally was successful – dozens showed up and sent a message that many of the Riverside Apartment residents want changes.
But while some measures from the Ansonia Housing Authority were implemented, others fell flat, after residents argued the new rules were punishing them instead of the people causing trouble.
