Thomas MacMillan Photo
Sgt. David Guliuzza taped off the crime scene Tuesday.
If the man found in Edgewood Park Tuesday was a suicide victim, the gun he used may have been taken from the scene after his death, said Assistant Police Chief John Velleca.
More than two days after a body of Ryan Barnaby, a 34-year-old Waterbury man, was found near the duck pond in Edgewood Park, it remains an open question whether it was a suicide or a murder, Velleca said Wednesday.
The man was found early Tuesday morning after neighbors reported seeing a man park his car, enter the park, and then a shot was fired. Neighbors reported that at 9:30 Sunday night. It wasn’t until over five hours later that police found a man dead from a gunshot wound.
Velleca said police have not determined if the gunshot was self-inflicted. Cops have not been able to find a gun. Some have suggested that that fact might point to the shooting being a homicide, but police have not promoted that theory, or any other.
Velleca said Wednesday that someone may have been lifted the gun from the scene of the suicide in the hours after the man died, before police found him.
“It’s very common for guns to be relieved” from shooting scenes, he said.
Velleca said police will make a final determination on the circumstances of the death after an autopsy and ballistics tests are complete. That could take a week or more, he said.
The Investigation has also been hampered by the rain that fell on the crime scene before and after police found the body, Velleca said. With that much rain, “the chances of getting evidence are slim,” he said.