An Edgewood Avenue grandmother is fearing for her safety, after bullets flew inside her house while she and her young grandchildren slept.
The shooting took place at 11:34 p.m. Wednesday on the 300-block of Winthrop Avenue, according to police spokesman Officer Joe Avery.
“Somebody just walked up to the house and started shooting,” the grandmother said, sitting in a car outside her house Thursday afternoon. She said she has lived on the block for nine years; her three grandkids are under 10 years old.
Neighbors reported about eight bullets coming through the house. On Thursday afternoon, remodeling specialist Joe DeNegris was sanding down plyboard to place in the shattered window panes of the front door. He said the target appears to be someone else in the three-family home; the grandmother and her grandkids live on the first floor.
DeNegris said when he came across the scene Thursday morning, “there was glass everywhere. The windows were busted out.” He pointed to a couple of places where bullets had pierced the walls. He said bullets ended up lodged in the walls of what appears to be a children’s bedroom on the first floor. If the bed had been in a different place in the room, someone could have been hurt, he said.
“I feel bad for the people who live there,” DeNegris said. “Innocent people.”
Police found multiple shell casings and two bullets, Avery said.
Girl Struck By Car
Across town in the Hill Thursday, a 12-year-old girl leaving the Boys & Girls Club Of New Haven darted across the street and was hit by a blue Mustang, according to Lt. Holly Wasilewski. The accident took place around 4:45 p.m. at 253 Columbus Ave., near the intersection with Howard.
“She was crossing the street to get in the car with her mom,” said the girl’s grandmother, Luz DeJesus.
DeJesus herded together a group of grandkids who hugged and cried on the sidewalk Thursday afternoon.
Stephanie Barnes, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club, said the girl had signed out for the day from the organization’s six-week summer camp.
“She had left the club and she darted across the street,” Barnes said.
Wasilewski said the girl was conscious and breathing when police found her. Witnesses told police that the girl ran across the street. Police interviewed the driver of the Mustang and let her go. She said the girl appeared to have “minor injuries” to her foot; she was sent to the hospital.
Paul Bass Photo
Earlier Thursday the gang from the Boys & Girls Club journeyed to the Congress Market, across from John Daniels School, for the opening of a “healthy corner store” initiative promoting good-for-you foods. The kids sampled fruit kebabs and collected no-blue-juice buttons. No one got hit by a car.
In other news, according to Avery and Yale police Chief Ronnell Higgins:
At 2 a.m. Thursday, four Yale undergrads were on Edgewood Avenue between Lynwood Place and Park Street when a man with what appeared to be a gun approached them. He stole a purse with an iPhone, $20, and keys.
In other police news, gunshots were reported in two neighborhoods overnight.
At 12:07 a.m., gunfire was reported near 17 Truman St. and at nearby Putnam and Button streets, Avery said. Police found no evidence.
Crime Map
Click here for a list of major crimes for July 13. Click on the image below to see those incidents placed on a citywide map.
NHPD
For block-by-block year-to-date crime information, plus daily crime maps, check out the Independent’s Crime Log.