Community Leaders, Police, Mayor Plead: Tell Us What You Know About Recent Shootings

Update 3:34 p.m.

Three African American church leaders and the head of the Norwalk NAACP sat shoulder-to-shoulder with local officials Thursday pleading for information from the public.  They are urging anyone with information on Norwalk's recent shootings — including the one just past midnight Thursday at Norwalk Hospital — to come forward and talk to police.

Mayor Richard A. Moccia, Police Chief Harry Rilling, Norwalk NAACP President Anita B. Schmidt, and the Revs. Ray Dancy, Lindsay Curtis and Amos Brown all pleaded with the public to give police information to solve the Thursday shooting case and 15 other related ones in order to prevent anyone else from being shot and possibly killed.

Those who have information about this shooting and previous related ones and who don't tell police what they know, "in the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ—they're just as guilty as the man who pulled the trigger," Brown said.

The shooting and even killing of someone one intends to harm is bad enough, said several of those speaking at the 2 p.m. news conference in Norwalk City Hall, but making victims out of total strangers who get shot because they happen to be at the same location is even worse.

They urged the people involved to cooperate with police in arresting the shooters and taking them into custody. They also asked family members of those involved to contact police. They pleaded for anyone who had any information at all, whether or not the person thinks the information is trivial, to get in touch with the Norwalk Police Department.

Rilling described the Thursday shooting and recent shootings, which he said were related, in strong terms:

"The incident last night was a horrific event that should shake us to our very core," Rilling said. "This is a horrific incident of a magnitude that I have not seen since becoming chief."

He was referring to the midnight shooting at the entrance to the emergency department at Norwalk Hospital. Police said four shots were fired at a man who was outside, just in front of the entrance to the department, hitting him in the leg. At least one bullet went through a glass window. No one else was hurt in the incident.

"We have reason to believe certain individuals knew he was at the hospital and were waiting for him when he left," Rilling said of the early morning shooting victim, whose name police will not release, following their standard policy. The victim's injury is "not life threatening," the police chief said.

Police stopped a car later on East Avenue that matched the description of the vehicle used in the shooting and interviewed suspects, including one who matched the description of the shooter, but have made no arrests at this time.

Police said the incident is related to about 15 other recent shootings in Norwalk that  were perpetrated by the same group of 10 to 12 individuals over the past year or so. Not all of the shootings have resulted in people being shot, said Deputy Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik.

"In the vast majority of these cases, we know who's responsible. We've identified the subjects. We know who they are," he said. But without cooperation from the victims or others who may have more information, they don't have enough evidence for an arrest, he said. "If a victim would just agree to cooperate and give us information in this case, it would go forward."

The hospital incident convinceed federal law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, to offer its services to Norwalk, including the services of the FBI crime laboratory in Quantico, Va., Rilling said.

Federal law enforcement authorities "have a certain threshold," before crimes are considered serious enough for them to get involved, Rilling said. The hospital shooting, combined with earlier incidents, crossed that line, he said.

Use of the federal crime laboratory is an important assist to the department, Rilling said, because the state crime laboratory is backed up at present with work on other cases. If the department needs to send a detective down to Quantico to deliver evidence for testing, it will do so to speed the process along, Rilling said.

Smith, head of the Norwalk NAACP, said she believed the dozen or so individuals involved are teenagers under 18 years old and young adults.

"People who know any information should give the Police Department their support," she said.

The Rev. Ray Dancy said the shootings have "appalled and deeply disturbed" him. He indicated that some of the shootings appeared to be in retaliation for previous ones. "This idea of urban justice—we've got to do away with it," he said.

The Rev. Lindsay Curtis of Grace Baptist Church said that for some time now he and others "have continued to beg our community: If you see something, say something. This whole idea of "snitches end up in ditches" is at least an ignorant notion. It's said (by people) not being fully aware of the harm that it does to the community at large."

Recent shootings in Norwalk have included one on Chestnut Street, not far from Norwalk Police headquarters, and another incident in which girls were followed from Norwalk onto Interstate 95 and were shot at on the highway.

Moccia also stressed cooperation from the community:

"We've had too many of these press conferences in the last year," he said, referring to news conferences related to criminal acts. If enough people had given police information on previous shootings, "we wouldn't be sitting here now. If they give it to police now, we might not be sitting here three months from now" after yet another shooting.

"Government can only do so much. The police can only do so much. All the wonderful groups from Rev. Dancy's to the NAACP can only do so much."

Original article:

A 22-year-old man shot in the leg inside Norwalk Hospital’s Emergency Department early Thursday morning was apparently specifically targeted by the guman, Norwalk Police say.

Police received numerous 911 calls from the hospital at 12:11 am reporting the victim was being treated by ED staff.

According to a news release from police, officers found a lobby window had been hit by “projectiles.”

Witnesses provided a description of the suspect and the car he used to flee from the scene. An officer spotted a vehicle matching the description at the intersection of East and Westport avenues and stopped it.

Its occupants were interviewed and the vehicle was seized. The release says search warrants are being sought to conduct a forensic examination of the car and other evidence.

The victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Mayor Richard A. Moccia and Police Chief Harry W. Rilling will be holding a news conference Thursday afternoon about the incident.

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to contact them at their tipline, (203) 854-3111. Anonymous tips can also be sent to www.norwalkpd.com, or as text messages, typing NPD into the text field and the message to CRIMES 274637.