Unexpected Call Answered

A man fled the Cedar Hill neighborhood one recent morning after firing a bullet at a passing car at close range. Within minutes, police officers found the shell casing, then the alleged shooter, then the gun.

That didn’t require a car or foot chase. It didn’t require anyone ducking bullets.

It did require nine officers thinking quick, communicating with each other, tapping video footage, and connecting with someone stressed over almost just losing his life.

That less dramatic, step-by-step coordination reflects how patrol officers have managed to seize almost double the number of illegal weapons so far this year compared to last year. (Click here to read about another such case.)

Two of the officers who played a key role in this May 13 Cedar Hill arrest, Alethia Moore and Daniel McLawrence, started patrolling New Haven over the past two years. They did not start out their careers looking to become cops — which may have contributed to their ability to get the job done that day. Or at least to make an important human connection as events unraveled fast.

Fussy-Fueled

McLawrence, who’s turning 40, who’s been on the beat less than a year, was three hours into a 16-hour shift when the report of a ​“suspicious” incident came over the radio that day around 11 a.m.

A staff shortage is requiring officers to work such double shifts regularly; having moved here from Brooklyn for the job, McLawrence said he volunteers for those double shifts as a way to get to know the city better.

Back in New York, he worked as group leader at a group home for the mentally challenged, then as a substance abuse counselor, then as a deescalation trainer at a psychiatric hospital before. Inspired by the cops he saw helping emotionally distressed people in crisis, he responded to a flyer for a public-safety app and successfully applied for the New Haven police job.

He has learned to make sure he remains fueled for those double shifts, hence the stop, his first ever cup of joe from Fussy Coffee on Munson Street. It won’t be his last.

Cup in hand, McLawrence headed over to Cedar Hill.

"Too Hot Out For Ninjas"

The initial call was about a young man acting ​“suspiciously” at the intersection of State and Grace Streets, wearing a hoodie and a mask.

“It’s too hot out for him to be dressed like a ninja,” the dispatcher conveyed.

Officer Moore heard the report, too. She and Officer Natalie Crosby, riding together near Wilbur Cross High School, were closer to the scene, so they headed over and arrived first.

“Looking like a ninja is not a crime. But we’re going to ride over there and see what’s going on,” Moore thought to herself en route. 

Moore, who’s 25, knows the terrain in New Haven. She grew up in Newhallville.

It was Moore’s sister Andrea who wanted to become a New Haven cop. Alethia herself was applying to become a parole officer, among other jobs, not a cop, when she returned home from college. Andrea had put in an application to the NHPD. While Alethia waited to hear back from potential employers, Andrea asked Alethia to help her train for the NHPD physical exam, since Alethia had run track for the teams at University of Massachusetts/Lowell and Hillhouse High (while attending Metropolitan Business Academy).

“I always run better when I’m with you,” Andrea told Alethia — so she asked Alethia to put in an NHPD application, too, so they could both take the physical exam together.

Andrea just missed passing the test by four points. (She took it again the next year, passed, and became a cop.) Alethia did pass the test, continued with the rest of the application.

“I passed. I’m here now,” she said.

So far she’s glad she answered that unexpected call, she said: She likes the unpredictability of each day. The work seems more interesting than sitting at a parole desk. She especially appreciated being regularly assigned to patrol her native Newhallville, where she gets a chance to stop and check in with neighbors. ​“I know the people in my district from growing up and [from] doing the job.”

When she began on the beat two years ago, one of her first arrests was of a man wanted on a warrant — who happened to be an old high school friend of her mother. 

“How’s your mom doing?” he asked Officer Moore as she patted him down and put him in handcuffs.

“If people know you, no matter what you’ve done, they’ll handle it,” she observed. ​“And nothing makes me superior to you because I wear a uniform. We’re people.”

A Guardian Angel

Before arriving at the scene of the call, the officers received an update: A second caller had reported that someone had ​“vandalized” a Ford-150 pick-up truck.

Moore and Crosby found a middle-aged man by the truck. It turned out someone had shot at his truck; the bullet was visibly lodged in the frame of the car between the driver and left-side passenger doors.

The driver started telling Moore the story: He had been driving northbound through the intersection of State and May streets when a man in the hoodie and black pants and black surgical mask was crossing on foot. The man ​“intentionally” slowed his step, according to the driver. So, the driver said, he slowed down too. He drove safely through, then heard a loud bang at the side of the truck.

He figured the pedestrian had banged on the truck. He pulled over, saw the man walk on May Street toward Cedar Hill Avenue. Upon seeing that the driver had stopped, the man began running away.

The driver grew increasingly agitated as he recounted the story, then started crying. He told Moore how one day years ago he had come upon a young man being shot at five times in Hamden; he had held the young man while he died, before emergency help arrived. He told Moore how just days before this incident on State Street he had attended a memorial event for the young man, how ​“at the ceremony, the kid’s mom said she was he glad he was there at the last moments as his guardian angel.”

The pickup-truck driver took a look at the bullet now lodged in his truck. It was clear that it had barely missed the window and potentially injuring or killing him.

“Now he’s serving as my guardian angel,” the driver said of the young man he’d held dying.

Moore listened, weighing how best to enable the man to express emotions while also trying to steer him back to the incident that had just occurred. The faster the officers received key information, the better chance they had of catching the shooter.

“We’re going to do this together,” Moore told the driver. ​“We’re going to figure this out. …

“What else do you remember?”

The man mentioned that his truck has a dashboard camera. He showed it to Moore, who removed the card, then slipped it into her computer. Video on the card showed the shooting. It showed the suspect dressed as described in the 911 calls with two key additional details: His black pants had three white stripes. (“Oh! Adidas,” Moore noted to herself.) And he wore white sneakers.

Meanwhile, Officer Crosby found a spent 9mm bronze shell casing in the State-May intersection, which she photographed; and then found footage of the shooting from one of the new ​“Milestone” surveillance cameras the police have been installing around town. She shared the footage with Moore, who put the new details on a radio broadcast to share with the now nine officers combing the area.

5 Magazines, For 71 Bullets

By this time Officer McLawrence had arrived at the scene. He stopped traffic on State so Crosby could photograph the tire-squooshed shell casing, then remove it from the street.

He heard another officer, Eric Aviles, report on the radio that he had stopped a man who seemed to fit the description. He and a woman had been walking on Willow Street headed back toward State.

McLawrence rushed over to find the stopped man and the woman ​“standing really nonchalantly.” He wondered why. Was this the right guy? ​“You don’t want to get it wrong,” he said. But neither did he want to see an alleged shooter let go.

McLawrence noticed the white sneakers and white stripes. He had also viewed the shared video clip. ​“Yeah,” he concluded, ​“that’s him.”

His concern now: Where’s the gun?

As Aviles handcuffed the man, the man turned to the woman, who was holding a backpack.

“I’m sorry,” the man told her.

That made McLawrence wonder if the gun was inside the backpack.

He looked inside the bag and found a black handgun with no serial number, five separate magazines capable of holding 71 bullets in total, and scattered 9 mm and 45-caliber bullets, according to the subsequent report. Neither the man nor the woman had a pistol permit, a database check revealed.

The man, who’s 20, and the woman, who’s 21, were taken to 1 Union Ave. The woman, who listed a Meriden address, was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit and possession of a large-capacity magazine. The man, who listed a North Haven address, was charged with first-degree criminal attempt of assault and unlawful discharge, among other offenses. The man, who is believed to be homeless, did not speak about the incident with police, and has not yet entered a plea, according to the state judicial database; he’s being held on $350,000. (A woman identifying herself as his mom declined comment when reached by phone.) The arrested woman, who has been released on $75,000 and also has not entered a plea, could not be reached for comment.

“Arrests like this are why we’ve been seizing more guns than ever even though we’re short-staffed and the dangers the officers face,” said Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli, who oversees patrol. He noted that patrol officers (separated out from other members of the department) have seized 88 percent more illegal guns off the street so far this year compared to this point in 2022 and made 83 percent more gun arrests.

Moving On

After the arrest, McLawrence returned to the State-May intersection to keep the pick-up truck driver company until detectives arrived.

The man was still visibly upset. He told McLawrence, too, about the young man who had died in his arms. He spoke about how close the bullet in this fresh incident came to hitting him.

“He needed something to believe in at this moment,” McLawrence reflected later. When the adrenaline rush of a scary incident passed, ​“these cortisol levels drop” and the ​“scary” realization sinks in of how dangerous the situation had been.

The bullet could have gone through my lung, the man told McLawrence.

To the pick-up driver, McLawrence said, ​“Listen this was a traumatic event. You need to reach out” to someone ​“to speak your feelings out. Don’t keep the feelings inside.”

McLawrence kept the conversation going. He explained the process ahead, how detectives would need to photograph where the bullet had entered the car.

Moore, meanwhile, began writing the main incident report. She and Crosby went over it several times. She wanted to make sure she had all the details right, to support the prosecutor in court.

The driver texted later to say he wants to show up in court to watch justice take its course. 

Moore made a point of not promising that the case would lead to a conviction. She’s said she’s been disappointed enough times already on the job to see people she arrested not have to pay the consequences for wrongdoing. She, too, used to follow up on the court outcomes of her cases. That became dispiriting, ​“so I just stopped.” She didn’t want to be deterred, she said, as she moves on to the next cases — reassured, as in cases like the Cedar Hill arrest, that she has colleagues who work as a team.

Previous stories about officers on the beat:

• Shafiq Abdussabur
• Yessennia Agosto
• Craig Alston & Billy White Jr.
• Joseph Aurora
• James Baker
• Lloyd Barrett
• Pat Bengston & Mike Valente
• Elsa Berrios
• Manmeet Bhagtana (Colon)
• Paul Bicki
• Paul Bicki (2)
• Sheree Biros
• Bitang
• Kevin Blanco
• Scott Branfuhr
• Bridget Brosnahan
• Thomas Brunski, Trevor Canace, Nick Samartino, Daniel Smith
• Craig Burnett & Orlando Crespo
• Keron Bryce and Steve McMorris
• Keron Bryce and Osvaldo Garcia
• Keron Bryce and Osvaldo Garcia (2)
• Dennis Burgh
• Tyler Camp
• Anthony Campbell
• Darryl Cargill & Matt Wynne
• Elizabeth Chomka & Becky Fowler
• Rob Clark & Joe Roberts
• Sydney Collier
• Carlos Conceicao
• Carlos Conceicao (2)
• Carlos Conceicao and Josh Kyle
• David Coppola
• Mike Criscuolo
•Natalie Crosby
• Steve Cunningham and Timothy Janus
• Chad Curry
• Gabrielle Curtis, Tyler Evans, Justin Julianelle
• Gregory Dash
• Roy Davis
• Joe Dease
• Milton DeJesus
• Milton DeJesus (2)
• Rose Dell
• Brian Donnelly
• Renee Dominguez, Leonardo Soto, & Mary Helland
• Anthony Duff
• Anthony Duff (2)
• Robert DuPont
• Robert DuPont and Rose Dell
• Eric Eisenhard & Jasmine Sanders
• Jeremie Elliott and Scott Shumway
• Jeremie Elliott (2)
• Jose Escobar Sr.
• Bertram Ettienne
• Bertram Ettienne (2)
• Daniel Evans & Ramonel Torres
• Martin Feliciano & Lou DeCrescenzo
• Paul Finch
• Jeffrey Fletcher
• Renee Forte
• Marco Francia
• Michael Fumiatti
• Michael Fumiatti (2)
• Osvaldo Garcia, Marlena Ofiara & Jake Wright
• William Gargone
• William Gargone (2)
• William Gargone & Mike Torre
• Derek Gartner
• Derek Gartner & Ryan Macuirzynski
• Tom Glynn & Matt Williams
• Jon Haddad & Daniela Rodriguez
• Michael Haines
• Michael Haines & Brendan Borer
• Michael Haines & Brendan Borer (2)
• Dan Hartnett
• Ray Hassett
• Robert Hayden
• Heidi
• Patricia Helliger
• Robin Higgins
• Ronnell Higgins
• William Hurley & Eddie Morrone
• Derek Huelsman
• Racheal Inconiglios
• Juan Ingles
• Bleck Joseph and Marco Correa
• Shayna Kendall
• Shayna Kendall (2)
• Paul Kenney
• Hilda Kilpatrick
• Herb Johnson
• John Kaczor & Alex Morgillo
• Jillian Knox
• Peter Krause
• Peter Krause (2)
• Amanda Leyda
• Rob Levy
•Kyle Listro & Joseph Perrotti
• Anthony Maio
• Dana Martin
• Ashley McKernan
• Reggie McGlotten
• Steve McMorris
• Juan Monzon
• Monique Moore and David Santiago
• Matt Myers
• Christopher Nguyen
• Carlos and Tiffany Ortiz
• Tiffany Ortiz
• Doug Pearse and Brian Jackson
• Chris Perrone
• Joseph Perrotti
• Joseph Perrotti & Gregory Dash
• Ron Perry
• Joe Pettola
• Diego Quintero and Elvin Rivera
• Ryan Przybylski
• Stephanie Redding
• Tony Reyes
•David Rivera
• Luis & David Rivera
• Luis Rivera (2)
• Salvador Rodriguez
• Salvador Rodriguez (2)
• Michael Rubino and Roberto Talloni
• Brett Runlett
• David Runlett
• Betsy Segui & Manmeet Colon
• Allen Smith
• Marcus Tavares
• Martin Tchakirides
• David Totino
• Stephan Torquati
• Gene Trotman Jr.
* Elisa Tuozzoli
• Kelly Turner
• Lars Vallin (& Xander)
• Dave Vega & Rafael Ramirez
• Earl Reed
• Daophet Sangxayarath & Jessee Buccaro
• Jason Santiago
• Herb Sharp
• Matt Stevens and Jocelyn Lavandier
• Jessica Stone
• Jessica Stone & Mike DeFonzo
• Arpad Tolnay
• Mike Torre & Ray Saracco
• John Velleca
• Manuella Vensel
• Holly Wasilewski
• Holly Wasilewski (2)
• Alan Wenk
• Stephanija VanWilgen
• Donald White, Brandon Way, & David Santiago
• Elizabeth White & Allyn Wright
• Matt Williams
• Michael Wuchek
• Michael Wuchek (2)
• David Zannelli
• Cailtin Zerella
• Caitlin Zerella (2)
• Caitlin Zerella, Derek Huelsman, David Diaz, Derek Werner, Nicholas Katz, and Paul Mandel
• David Zaweski