“Wild Man” On Sidewalk
Had Just Been Shot

Ed Funaro stepped out of his Dixwell Avenue pharmacy on Wednesday to help a guy, who had just been shot in the arm, find his car keys.

For Funaro, it was just another day at the corner drugstore he’s run for 45 years.

“You get kind of immune to it,” he said of the shooting.

The 19-year-old who was shot was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital for his injury.

Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery: At 2:22 p.m. on Wednesday, the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system indicated two shots fired on Dixwell Avenue near Willis Street. Police found a shooting victim from Hamden at the corner of Dixwell and Bassett Street, in front of Visel’s Pharmacy. He told cops he was been shot while walking on Willis Street.

On Thursday afternoon, Visel’s was bustling with people. The shop is a drug store, convenience store, and, in one corner, a liquor store. Funaro was behind the pharmacy counter handing out prescriptions.

Here’s what he said happened, on Wednesday afternoon:

After the front-end clerk alerted him to the shooting, Funaro went out the back door and found a guy ​“running around like a wild man” on the sidewalk. He had pulled off his sweatshirt and flung it on his car, parked on the street, and he was circling the vehicle looking for his keys.

Funaro didn’t immediately realize the guy had been shot. He didn’t see any blood.

When he couldn’t find his keys, the guy went across the street and walked away, Funaro said. ​“He was a little bit disgruntled.”

On Thursday, Funaro said he was unfazed by the incident.

“Come on, around here?” he said. ​“I’ve been here 45 years.” Funaro said he’s seen it all, been hit over the head, robbed. ​“What’s going to worry me now? … We’ve seen so much of this stuff.”

Carjacking, Drug Bust

In other police news, according to Avery:

At 6:05 p.m. on Wednesday, a 31-year-old woman was ordered out of her car by two men near the Hill Health Center on Columbus Avenue. The men drove off in her car, which was later located nearby on Carlisle Street.

At 10:24 p.m. Officers Williams and Robinson stopped a man after witnessing him involved in a hand-to-hand drug deal. When the man fled from the cops, they saw him ditch a shiny object. He was caught with two bags of weed. A search of the area found a silver Charter Arms revolver. The 40-year-old was arrested on drug and weapon’s charges.

Crime Map

Click here for a list of major crimes for Jan. 5. Click on the image below to see those incidents placed on a citywide map.

For block-by-block year-to-date crime information, plus daily crime maps, check out the Independent’s Crime Log.