1:19pm–#Bridgeport CT– Bridgeport University security caught a man exposing himself on the 3rd floor at a dorm at 126 Park Avenue. The man fled in a purplish van. He got onto the highway then exited Seaview Avenue where security stopped following him.
Police file # 135. UPDATE–He did it 6 times today, security has a picture of it, err him.
Month: March 2014
Fairfield News: 4 hospitalized after spectacular crash
#Fairfield CT–Video Report–A car continuing traveling at highway speeds after exiting exit 24 of I-95 southbound hit a barrier designed to protect the gas pumps at Cumberland Farms on Kings Highway, clipped a taxicab, hit a parked car into another parked car that hit the building. Police are still sorting this tangled mess of events. Fortunately the four sent to the hospital did not suffer life threatening injuries even though you could not tell that from the damage to the vehicles involved. Firefighters attribute civilians at the scene with keeping the scene safe prior to their arrival. The video report tells so much more to this story.
Two dead in shooting at U.S. Naval Station in Norfolk, Va.
Just breaking news, Two dead in shooting at U.S. Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia. No real details at this moment. The shooting took place on Pier One around 11:20pm Monday night. Around 2am the lock down at the pier has been lifted.
Bridgeport News: Possible home invasion
12:12am–#Bridgeport CT–A person at 185 Palisades Avenue just reported to police that a man wearing a bandanna jumped into the window of his apartment, attacked his roommate with a firearm and jumped back out the window and fled.
Bridgeport News: Worker attacked by customer
11:57pm–#Bridgeport CT– A worker from RJ Automotive at 1309 Barnum Avenue was attacked by a customer and is now at Bridgeport Hospital’s Emergency Room with lacerations to the face.
Teen Arrested for Robbery
(Bridgeport, CT – March 21, 2014) – A city teen was arrested for a robbery on his 18th birthday.
Officers Cody Remy and Michael Mazzacco responded to Harral Avenue for an attempted robbery and assault Thursday night. Sgt. Sean Lynch and other officers had arrived moments earlier and observed a male with a wood stick chasing another male.
The man with the stick ended up being the robbery victim. He told police that he has just purchased some eggs and tomatoes at a grocery store and was walking home when he was approached by a group of young males. He was knocked down from behind and members of the group rifled through his pockets and threw the eggs and tomatoes at him.
When one of the youths intimated that he had a weapon, the victim fled with the youths pursuing him. The victim, 36, picked up a small wooden board to protect himself. Police began arriving at that point.
Police detained the victim and the suspect, later identified as Elija Ceesay, 18, of Bridgeport, and through the victim and witnesses compiled an account of what occurred.
Ceesay was charged with first-degree robbery, third-degree assault, second-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace and interfering with police.
Bridgeport News: Foot pursuit after hit and run
6:51pm–#Bridgeport CT–Police are in a foot pursuit/manhunt for 3 teens who were just involved in a hit and run accident at Park and Olive Street. EMS on the way for the driver that was hit.
Bridgeport News: Police Identify Homicide Victim
#Bridgeport CT– The Police Department, through the medical examiner, has confirmed the identity of homicide victim found Saturday on Palisade Avenue. Her name is Tinese Benson, 28.
On 3/22/2014 Patrol Officers Hanson and Bensey responded to 525 Palisades Ave apt#506 on a report of an unresponsive party in the apartment, possibly barricaded inside. Upon arrival they were met by the occupant’s sister who stated she located her brother Alejandro Velez inside the apartment, unresponsive, the door was barricaded by furniture and had to be forced open.
Upon checking the apartment she located an unidentified female lying on the bathroom floor, also unresponsive, apparently suffering from multiple stab wounds. The medics were summoned to the scene and the female was pronounced dead by AMR personnel, Velez was subsequently transported to Bridgeport Hospital for treatment.
Based on information obtained by investigators, and evidence located at the scene,
Alejandro Velez is being charged with Murder by investigating Detectives
Lariccia/Ferri/Curet, and being detained on $1 Million Bond; his condition is listed as critical, but stable, and is currently in the hospitals ICU.
The apartment where the incident occurred is rented by the suspect’s mother who currently is in Florida. Velez has an extensive criminal history which includes arson, assault on an officer and other offenses. This is Bridgeport’s 1st homicide of the year.
The victim has been tentatively identified through photos. She will be positive identified through fingerprints during autopsy.
Burglary Suspect Arrested in the Act
(Bridgeport, CT – March 21, 2014) – Police arrested a 50-year-old man on a burglary charge Thursday. Officer Stavros Mirtsopoulos was dispatched to 1 Yaremich Drive, a vacant house, on a report of a burglary in progress. Officers had positioned themselves in the front and rear of the building when the suspect, Willie Cox, of Bridgeport, attempted to flee out the front door. When he encountered police, he attempted to go back into the house but police apprehended him.
He was treated for lacerations to his hands that he suffered when he broke the window to gain entry and for a laceration on his head.
He was treated and released at the hospital and then booked on charges of third-degree burglary, third-degree criminal mischief and interfering with police.
Familiar Phone Number Leads Detectives to Arrest Teen in Robbery
(Bridgeport, CT – March 20, 2014) – A teenaged robber had ordered pizza from his cell phone with a just-stolen credit card.
The larcenous act provided detectives with a key lead when one of the detectives remembered the same cell phone number in connection with another January robbery he investigated.
Now the same teen will face charges in connection with a second robbery.
On Jan. 13, a mugging victim came to police headquarters for an interview with Detectives Martin Heanue and Jorge Cintron about a street robbery that had happened on Jan. 2 on Beechwood Avenue. She was walking home and reached her door when she was grabbed from behind and had her purse stolen by two males.
In the interview, she also told police that her visa card was used to purchase food from a Stratford pizza restaurant about two hours after the mugging. She had used a GPS locator a day after the robbery that told her that her stolen iPhone was in the area of 154 Alex St.
When the detectives followed up and visited the pizza shop, an employee stated the food was delivered to 203 Alex St. and provided the phone number from which the order was placed.
Certain details jumped out.
“I remembered the phone number” from the earlier case, said Heanue. He also recalled that the robbery suspect in the other case was arrested at a friend’s house on Alex Street.
That robbery happened on Hollister Avenue on Jan. 5, three days after the purse snatching. Heanue and Cintron were assigned to that case as well.
In the Jan. 5 robbery, the teenaged victim, from West Hartford, stated that he had arranged to buy a pair of Air Jordan sneakers on a Facebook page called “Connecticut Sneaker Exchange.” The alleged seller used a profile name and the two corresponded to negotiate a selling price.
When he and his father came to the arranged location, they were robbed. Police were able to identify one of the suspects with his Facebook profile picture. The victim also provided the suspect’s cell phone number.
That detail proved to be key in the Jan. 2 robbery investigation.
As Heanue and Cintron began investigating the earlier robbery from Jan. 2, they realized that the cell phone used to order the pizza was the same one provided by the victim for the suspect in the Jan. 5 robbery.
They also noted that the pizza delivered to Alex Street was taken to a location in the same block as where the teen suspect had been arrested.
The detectives showed the purse-snatching victim a photo array that contained the suspect’s photo and she picked out the suspect.
The suspect has been in custody since his arrest on Jan. 5. A judge signed a warrant charging the youth, who has since turned 18, with first-degree robbery, fifth-degree larceny, credit card theft and illegal use of a credit card. The warrant has not yet been served.