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Crime & Safety

Bumped Car Door Triggers Bat Versus Gun Confrontation

Man gets baseball bat from car trunk, owner of struck car responds by pulling out a handgun.

A youngster opening a car door and accidently striking it against the car in the adjacent parking space triggered a bat versus gun confrontation Saturday afternoon at an East Norwalk shopping center.

Police said the incident began when a man drove into a parking spot in front of the Super Suds laundromat at 82 Fort Point St. with three of his daughters in the car.

His 12-year-old daughter opened a door that struck the adjacent car, and the owner of that car stepped out of it to confront her father.

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Police said the man shoved her father, who reacted by getting a baseball bat from the trunk of his car to defend himself.

At that point, police said, the man displayed a handgun and said, "Drop the bat or I'll pop you." The man then drove away.

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A delivery person from a Chinese restaurant in the shopping center wrote down the license plate of the man who left and someone from Super Suds called police at 5:16 p.m.

Police broadcast the plate and minutes later an officer reported being behind the man's car on Fairfield Ave. and stopped him.

The driver, Salvatore Pelle, 40, of 12 Nash Pl., was charged with four counts of reckless endangerment, criminal use of a firearm, second-degree breach of peace, and criminal use of a firearm.

Pelle has a permit to carry a gun, police said.

Pelle was held in lieu of $20,000 bond and given a court date of March 29.

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