Allan Appel Photo
New Officer Cherelle Carr, who grew up in New Haven, with her cousin Officer Jillian Knox.
As he dispatched a fresh batch of rookies to help keep New Haven’s streets safe, Mayor John DeStefano called for the national banning of semi-automatic weapons and large capacity gun clips — or else “the unimaginable will become more commonplace.”
He issued the policy recommendation and the jeremiad prophecy Monday evening just before administering the solemn oath to 28 newly minted New Haven officers and four others from Hamden, Redding, and Ridgefield who finished the regimen at the city’s police academy.
The recruits right before becoming officers.
The graduation ceremony drew a full house to Wilbur Cross High School. As each recruit received a diploma and a badge to become a sworn officer of the law, hoots, hollers, and shout-outs of love and admiration reverberated across the auditorium.
When their field training is complete, all the officers will hit the streets as foot patrol officers, said Assistant Chief for Professional Standards Thaddeus Reddish.
As community policing ramps up, New Haven is scrambling to fill a shortage of officers and to meet demands of neighborhoods to have officers they can get to know and to rely on.
Click here for a story about the swearing in of four officers, trained at the academy in Meriden, back in October. And here for a story how a little corner of East Rock raised a ruckus when there was a danger of losing their beat cops.
Mayor DeStefano’s remarks followed two moments of silence requested by previous speakers. The police academy chief, Sgt. Anthony Campbell, who served as master of ceremonies, initiated the ceremonies with one of those moments because, he said, “Our joyous day is tempered by the pain and suffering of our neighbors in Newtown.”
Chief Dean Esserman called for a moment of silence “for Connecticut’s fallen children” on a solemn occasion made more solemn by recent events.
Then DeStefano who got specific.
Citing the 32 homicides and 133 instances of people wounded by bullets in New Haven last year, DeStefano, a member of the national group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, called for a countrywide ban on semi-automatic weapons like the Bushmaster rifle used in the Newton shootings as well as the banning of large-capacity cartridge clips.
Grandfather Barrington Bogle pins the badge on Carr.
He also called it no longer acceptable that 40 percent of gun purchases occur without background checks.
“As the president pointed out, no one law can do it [all]. But we must begin. The consequences of evil behavior can be lessened,” DeStefano said.
Turning to the recruits about to become sworn officers, he said, “These 32 are stepping up. It’s now up to us, as the citizens of New Haven, to do the same.”
Venetia Armfield won 7 in the lottery by betting her cousin Cherelle’s new badge number: 121.
An Example Since Grade School
That’s how godmother Tennille Murphy described goddaughter Cherelle Carr, who was sworn in with the 27 other New Haven cops and four others from surrounding towns. She is the only female officer among this group of New Haven cops, although female officers from Ridgefield and Redding also trained in her class.
Carr said she encountered no gender barriers at the academy. “We all bonded,” she said.
Fellow new officer Nicholas Katz shared meals and lots of cheesecake at Carr’s family’s house during the 26 weeks of training, noted Carr’s mom, Inger Cowan.
“She made us all better,” Katz said.
A large cake with her badge number awaited Officer Carr.
Carr, 23, grew up in the old Elm Haven projects, went to Wexler-Grant, Troup, and Career High. She graduated from Quinnipiac University, where the courses she took in criminal justice confirmed her in her career choice. Her grandfather Barrington Bogle was a cop in Jamaica for 12 years before he came to establish a family in the Elm City.
It was he who pinned the badge on his granddaughter.
In alphabetical order, here are the new New Haven officers:
Lesley Billingslea; Brendan Borer; Keron Bryce; Brendan Canning, Jr.,; Cherelle Carr; Jacob Cedeno; Matthew Collier; Daniel Conklin; MIchael Criscuolo; Vincent DeLeo; David Diaz; Osvaldo Garcia; Thomas Glynn; Michael Haines; Ryan Kajtor; Nicholas Katz; Matthew King; Jonathan Lambe; Paul Mandel; Eric Pesino; Paul Prusinski; Freddy Salmeron; Jason Santiago; John Schmaltz Jr.; Joseph Silvestrini; Dana E. Smith II; Amaro Vitale; Derek Werner.
Also graduating to serve with the Hamden police department: Justin Martin and Andrew Pfeiffer. Christina Dias will serve with the Redding police and Victoria Nissen with the Ridgefield Police Department.