Thomas Breen file photo
Chief Jacobson: Street takeovers are "extremely dangerous."
CTSTREETS weighs in on recent "Inciting a Riot" arrest.
“We’ve got a trailer full of dirt bikes and ATVs that we want to get rid of,” Mayor Justin Elicker said, while flanked by the city’s police chief, the state attorney general, and the chair of the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
Please, he implored state lawmakers, let New Haven destroy these street-takeover vehicles, and not just auction them off.
Elicker sent that message up to Hartford from Newhallville Tuesday morning, during a press conference held at the police department’s academy and garage property at 710 Sherman Pkwy.
Standing alongside Police Chief Karl Jacobson, state Attorney General William Tong, New Haven State Sen. and Judiciary Committee Co-Chair Gary Winfield, among others, Elicker called for the state legislature to pass three bills designed to deter reckless driving and street takeovers.
Those proposed laws included Senate Bill No. 1284: An Act Concerning The Illegal Use Of Certain Vehicles And Street Takeovers, Senate Bill No. 1389: An Act Authorizing Certain Ordinances Concerning Street Takeovers, and House Bill No. 7260: An Act Concerning Excessive Reckless Driving.
If passed and signed into law, these bills would allow municipalities to fine people who organize, participate, or watch street takeovers $1,000 for a first violation, $1,500 for a second, and $2,000 for a third and subsequent offenses. They would also allow municipalities to seize cars involved in street takeovers, and enact new penalties for people caught driving over 100 miles per hour.
Surrounded by dirt bikes and All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) that the city has already seized as part of previous state-enabling local legislation, Elicker and Jacobson said that Senate Bill 1284 would also allow allow for municipalities to destroy such impounded vehicles. Current law only allows municipalities to sell these seized vehicles at a public auction.
Jacobson said that the police department has 75 impounded ATVs, some of which were on display at Tuesday’s presser. “We’re hoping part of this passes and we’re able to destroy these and make room for more,” he said.
Elicker agreed. “We want to destroy these things.” Not auction then off. (Click here to read about Elicker’s testimony in support of the bill during a recent Judiciary Committee public hearing.)
All of Tuesday’s speakers emphasized just how dangerous street takeovers and drag racing can be. Elicker said the city’s recently convened regional taskforce — which includes police representatives from New Haven, Naugatuck, Hamden, Guilford, Woodbridge, North Haven, and elsewhere — has already seized 65 vehicles, issued 33 tickets, and made five arrests. Jacobson said that there have been four or five “shots fired incidents” as part of recent street takeovers.
And Elicker spoke about police’s recent arrest of two men involved in a July 2024 crash that killed car passengers Madysin Hilker, 19, and Dajsha Knight, 21. Elicker said that the arrestees were involved in a street takeover earlier in the day before the fatal crash.
Anyone who follows the Judiciary Committee under his leadership, Winfield said, knows that “we are a little bit circumspect about adding penalties” if unnecessary. So, when it’s gotten to a point where the committee is considering enhancing penalties for street takeovers and reckless driving, “you know we are very serious.”
“Don’t do it,” Winfield said to any drag racers who may be listening. “That’s the message. Don’t do it.”
Click here to watch Tuesday’s press conference in full.
Car-Loving YouTuber Arrested For "Inciting A Riot"
Meanwhile, on Friday, city police announced via the social media site X that they had arrested a 35-year-old New Milford man on one misdemeanor count of Inciting A Riot.
A March 5 arrest warrant affidavit written by city police Officer Daniel McLawrence states that New Haven “has seen a high volume of calls for service for ‘Drag Racing,’ ” which he defined as “an illegal event where motor vehicle races, contests, or demonstrations of speed or skill can be illegally conducted as public exhibitions.” These incidents are reckless and dangerous, he wrote, and can lead to physical injury for participants, spectators, and the public.
While following up on calls about drag racing in New Haven, McLawrence continued, he founds a YouTube account called CTSTREETS203, which has over 6,000 followers and around 360 videos. He wrote that he believed the YouTube account and an associated Instagram account were “being used to organize illegal Drag Racing.”
McLawrence identified the same man featured in all of the account’s videos — and he saw one video on the account that showed drag racing on Printers Lane in the Hill in late January. McLawrence also connected this account to another drag racing incident on Printers Lane on Feb. 1.
“For approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, the unidentified male engages the views of the YouTube feed, the racers, and present spectators encouraging them to race and saying into the camera which two vehicles he would like to see drag race,” McLawrence wrote about a video filmed late at night on Feb. 1 and early in the morning on Feb. 2.
“In the chat feature attached to the live-video feed,” he continued, “the male talks to viewers who are chatting with him about the lack of police presence and informs the chat not to reveal or mention locations in an obvious attempt to hide his location.”
Through license plate and DMV image research, McLawrence ultimately identified the man allegedly behind this social media account as Arturo Hernandez.
In a video called “CTSTREETS is live (Defamation)” and streamed to the CTSTREETS YouTube account on Saturday, a man who appears to be Hernandez tells his viewers about the arrest on charges of inciting a riot.
“All I do is record, guys. They’re making this something bigger than what it is.”
He talks about how his “ugly ass mugshot” has been making the rounds online ever since police published news of his arrest. And he said that, going forward, he won’t be making any more live videos.
He then told his viewers why he runs this account in the first place. “I love cars with a passion,” he said. “I’m still gonna record cars. That’s my passion.”