A suspect in two murders was almost murdered himself Monday night, in one of two serious, unrelated shootings.
The suspect is 21 years old and lives in the West Hills neighborhood.
It was in that neighborhood, in a parking lot on Valley Street, shortly before 11 p.m. Monday that somebody shot the man in the neck, in the back, and in the lower abdomen, according to Acting Police Chief John Velleca. The man is in the intensive care unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital. As of Tuesday morning, he was is in critical condition and hooked up to a ventilator.
In addition to possibly killing two other people in town, the man has shot several others and been shot at himself, according to Velleca. He was convicted on weapons charges in 2006, according to the state’s judicial website; he received a five-year sentence, suspended after one year.
“This kid has been wreaking havoc,” Velleca said.
Earlier Monday evening, around 9 p.m., a man was shot in the buttocks by a bus stop outside the Farnam Court housing project on Grand Avenue.
The man, born in 1977, told police someone he didn’t know “went by in a car and shot him,” but then he refused to provide further details, according to Velleca. The police separately collected information that the man was possibly shot after refusing to pay for drugs he was purchasing in front of the project’s playground.