Uma Ramiah Photo
Hillhouse High School was on lockdown for 15 minutes Tuesday afternoon after gunshots were fired a block away outside the A&A Market.
The incident took place around 1 p.m.
People inside the store claimed the shooting took place on the corner across Goffe Street from the store.
But a man who happened to be driving by at the time of the shooting said four or five people were congregating right outside the store when the shooting happened, right there.
A 46 year old man in a green jacket and black hoodie soon after showed up at the Hospital of St. Raphael with a minor gunshot wound to the hip.
It appears the man was shot outside the market, which is at the corner of Carmel and Goffe streets.
Sgt. James Grasso said he spoke to the shooting victim at the hospital. The victim said the bullet had grazed him; he walked to the hospital.
The victim said he hadn’t heard any arguing or yelling, but noticed four or five adults standing at the corner. Then he heard shooting. His back was to the group; he realized a bullet had hit him from behind. The victim said he didn’t believe he was the intended target.
Police are not looking for anyone specific at the moment, Grasso said.
As of 4 p.m, Grasso said significant resources had been devoted to canvassing the neighborhood, though he was not at liberty to disclose any further information. Detectives were knocking on doors and asking neighbors for any information they might have.
The “shooting has nothing to do with the school itself,” said police spokesman Officer Joe Avery.
Police kept reporters away from the school grounds to allow students to go home without being harassed.
Handgun? Or Electric Razor?
Around the same time, police responded to a report of a man on a bus with a gun, over in the West River neighborhood.
A woman riding a New Haven city bus thought she saw the butt of a handgun in her seat mate’s backpack. Turns out, it was just an electric razor.
Police didn’t find that out until stopping the bus, interviewing the woman, and searching the seat mate.
She phoned the police after getting off the bus.
“She did the right thing in calling us,” Lt. Ray Hassett said at the scene.
Police stopped CT Transit Bus 338 on the corner of Derby Avenue and Mead Street at 1 p.m Tuesday. They removed the suspect and put him in the back of a squad car for questioning. The 13 or so bus riders were transferred to another passing bus and sent on their way.
“He wasn’t resistant,” Hassett said.
The witness’s description of what she thought was a handgun matched the appearance of the razor, said Sgt. Richard Miller. Officers let the man go with no charge. Once the gave the OK to travel to resume, he got a ride downtown with the same bus he’d been escorted off just an hour earlier.
“It’s good that she called the cops even if it was nothing,” said a passing neighborhood woman. “You never know what people are carrying these days.”
Miller agreed.
“Better safe than sorry.”
Crime Map
Police got calls for four stolen cars and two burglaries Monday.
Click here for a list of calls for major incidents on March 28. Click on the image below to see those crimes placed on a city-wide map.
For block-by-block year-to-date crime info, and daily crime maps, check the Independent’s crime log.