Someone at the top of East Rock is walking around with a cross-bow, someone told Police Officer Lars Vallin.
That’s not all he ended up having with him.
The incident began at 7:47 a.m. on Saturday. Here’s what happened next, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman:
Vallin and fellow cop Sam Streater went up East Rock’s road in search of the cross-bower. “A bicyclist stopped them and reported the same man had placed a rifle on the top of his car and appeared to be adjusting a crossbow’s string to its lath,” Hartman reported.
At the summit, a woman informed Streater of a rifle atop of a parked black car. Streater “retrieved the rifle,” then, with Vallin and police dog Xander, who had joined the hunt, they resumed looking for the cross-bower.
They found the man, who’s 27 and from New Haven, near the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. He said “he’d had trouble sleeping and decided to go to the park to shoot at squirrels and rabbits. He claimed to have shot between four and eight arrows, although none were recovered,” according to Hartman.
Cops did recover “a bb gun, Mace gun, Mace canister, arrows and two canisters of lead pellets” from the man’s car, and confiscated them along with the rifle and cross bow. They arrested the man on charges of carrying a dangerous weapon, reckless endangerment, breach of peace, and … “negligent hunting.”
Uncle-Nephew Duo Nab Alleged Rapist
On Thursday, Detective Carlos Roman will fly to Florida to see his nephew in Kissimmee — and pick up an alleged sexual predator the two men caught together.
Here’s what happened, according to Hartman:
On Feb. 20, the police began investigating the sexual assault of a 4‑year-old girl. Detective Roman “developed information” that the assault was carried out by a 30-year-old man who lives in south Florida. The man had been visiting Connecticut for a month when the assault was committed.
Roman contacted the Kissimmee police department to pick up the man for questioning. The Kissimmee cop assigned to the case was Detective Georgie Torres, who happens to be Roman’s nephew.
On July 5, Detective Torres interviewed the man and “substantiated the criminal allegations.” Uncle Roman then got an arrest warrant for the man on two counts of sexual assault.
The man was arrested on Aug. 2. “He is being held in the Oscecola County jail with no bond as he awaits extradition to New Haven,” Hartman said.
On Thursday, Aug. 16, Roman and Detective Carlos Maldonado will fly down to Florida and pick up the arrested man.