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Crime & Safety

Man Killed in Double Shooting Was on Parole [Update]

Had been serving eight year sentence for armed robbery. State medical examiner's office says no information is being releasesd about autopsies of both persons shot dead.

Update 2:45 p.m.

Iroquois Alston, one of two people discovered dead Saturday in the Golden Hill neighborhood of Norwalk, was a parolee who had been released from state prison on May 16, according to the Connecticut Department of Correction.

He had been under supervised parole since then.

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Alston's parole officer in Bridgeport was not permitted to release any information about him. A request for information about Alston from the Department of Correction public information officer was not immediately answered.

Before his release, Alston was serving an eight-year sentence for first-degree armed robbery, criminal possession of a firearm, and first-degree larceny. He was arrrested June 24, 2004, by Bridgeport Police and sentenced on Oct. 10, 2004.

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Both Alston and Rickita Smalls were to be autopsied Monday at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington. A spokesman there said that at this time the office would release no information.

Update 12:05 p.m.

Anyone with information about the shootings can contact Norwalk Police at the department's Tipline: (203) 854-3111, or text tips to: CRIMES (274637), add the key word NPD. Tips can also be submitted on-line to www.norwalkpd.com .

Update 8:55 a.m.:

Iroquois Alston, 27, was one of two Bridgeport residents found dead in a car on Avenue B in Norwalk on Saturday, had a record of convictions in state Superior Court in Stamford for several violent crimes:

  • On December 21, 2001, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery on June 30, 1999. In connection with that case, on Jan. 7, 2005, he was convicted of violation of probation and first-degree failure to appear in court.
  • Also on Dec. 21, 2001, he was convicted on a felony count of selling drugs on June 28, 2000. He was sentenced to five years in jail, sentence suspended after two years, and three years of probation. In connection with that case, he was sentenced to five years in jail on Jan. 7, 2005 for first-degree failure to appear in court.
  • Also on Dec. 21, 2001, he was convicted of using a motor vehicle without permission, a misdemeanor, on July 16, 2000.
  • On Oct. 29, 2004, he was found guilty of first-degree robbery with a deadly weapon, criminal possession of a firearm and first-degree larceny—all offenses committed on June 24, 2004. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
  • On Jan. 7, 2005, Alston was convicted of one felony count of selling drugs on March 4, 2004 and first-degree failure to appear in court. He was sentenced to seven years in jail.

Added at 9:13 a.m.: In state Superior Court in Bridgeport, Alston was convicted on March 29, 2004 on two misdemeanor charges: sixth-degree larceny and disorderly conduct, both crimes committed on Jan. 1, 2004.

Added at 12:09 a.m.: The arrests that led to Alston's convictions in state Superior Court in Stamford were all made by Stamford police.

Update 8:32 a.m.:

Norwalk police have identified the man and woman found dead Saturday in a car in the Golden Hill neighborhood as Iroquois Alston, 27, and Rickita Smalls, 22.

Both were Bridgeport residents. An autopsy is expected to be performed later today by the Connecticut Medical Examiner's Office, Police Chief Harry W. Rilling said.

Original story, Saturday:

Police have not released the identities of a man and woman found shot to death Saturday morning in a car on Avenue B. But a female relative of the woman told Patch at the crime scene she is 24-year-old Bridgeport woman.

The relative was among more than a dozen family members and friends of Smalls who came to the crime scene.

In mid-afternoon, a police officer showed family members of the victim a photograph of the woman in the car, which triggered a burst of tragic emotion as the worst was confirmed.

As they watched the victim's family and friends react to the news, some neighborhood residents burst into tears themselves. Residents brought them bottles of water and cigarettes.

A Norwalk resident at the scene said the female victim visited her in her home until 11:30 p.m. Friday. She said her daugher and another young woman were best friends with the deceased woman, and that she frequently was in her home.

The resident said her own daughter was at Lake Compounce Saturday and called her, hysterical that she had received a call that her Bridgeport friend was dead.

Neither family members nor police identified the dead man in the car.

A resident of the neighborhood contacted police at around 7:30 a.m. Saturday to report there was a black car with a broken window and a woman inside not moving.

This morning, Police Chief Harry W. Rilling said it was unclear if the shootings were a double homicide or a murder-suicide. At the scene Saturday afternoon, Dep. Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said investigators had still not determined the circumstances of the deaths.

Kulhawik said no one from the neighborhood with whom police had spoken recognized the car, which was near the intersection of Avenue B and Crown Avenue.

He said the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad was asked to join the investigation because its members have extensive experience in determining the trajectories of bullets.

The car was sitting with the front end away from the curb, appearing as if it the driver was in the midst of either parallel parking it or pulling away from the curb when the shooting occurred.

A resident said he had looked into the car through binoculars and it appeared the female in the driver's seat had been shot in the head. He said it could not see a wound on the man in the front passenger seat, but police confirmed both had been shot.

The man said it appeared the front passenger window had been shot out.

Kulhawik said the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad was asked to participate in the investigation because its members have extensive experience determing the trajectories of bullets.

Also at the scene were members of the Norwalk Police Special Services Unit, who handle vice crimes, and Supervising Assistant State's Attorney James Bernadi of Stamford.

The neighborhood is mostly residential. Residents stood behind yellow crime scene tape for hours observing Norwalk detectives and members of the state police Major Crime Squad conduct their investigation.

"This is scary," said Herold Clebert, an immigrant from Haiti who has lived in the neighborhood since 1994. "My kids walk by here everday."

"We've been living here for 30 years," said Willa Milei. "We've never had any problems."

Sofia Andronikides, 17, stopped her SUV on Morton Street to look at the scene of law enforcement vehicles and the crowd of neighborhood residents narrowing the intersection of Morton and Avenue B. Andronikides said she heard what she thought were fireworks at around midnight.

"They were not loud enough to be gunshots," she said. 

The incident marks the first murder in Norwalk this year.

Editor's note: The victim's name has been removed from the article until police release it.

Correction: Iroquois Alston's 2005 conviction for selling drugs and failure to appear in court was on Jan. 7, not Jan. 17, as originally reported.

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