Thomas MacMillan Photo
Police arrested a 16-year-old after he allegedly drove a rental car into a Mini Cooper and a Honda Pilot in front of the Hospital of St. Raphael on Monday afternoon. The car was connected to three incidents of shots fired earlier in the day.
Police said the 16-year-old and a 18-year-old passenger led them on a brief chase before turning the wrong way on Chapel Street hitting the Cooper. The teenager jumped out of the car and was apprehended a block away, police said. The passenger was arrested in the car. Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries.
At around 4 p.m., police had taped off a crime scene in front of St. Raphael’s. Cops were rerouting traffic on Chapel Street between Orchard Street and Sherman Avenue. Assistant Chief Ariel Melendez was on the scene, along with Sgt. Max Joyner, the local top cop.
Here’s what happened, according to Melendez (pictured):
At around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, police responded to a report of shots fired at Hurlburt Street and Spring Street in the Hill. Witnesses told police that a Dodge Neon was involved. No one was hurt.
Two hours later, shots were fired at Sherman Avenue and Munson Street in Newhallville. More shots were fired almost immediately at Shelton Avenue and Read Street. No one was hurt. Witnesses reported seeing a Dodge Neon at both locations, and gave police the plate number.
About a half an hour after that, a patrol officer, Joe Roberts, spotted the Neon parked near Derby Avenue and Norton Street in West River. Two detectives parked nearby in an unmarked car and waited for the driver to show. Two males got into the car about 20 minutes later. They pulled away and refused to stop when ordered to by police. They led police on a brief pursuit up to Edgewood Avenue, then back down Edgewood to Hotchkiss. The Neon stopped at Hotchkiss and Chapel, with a police car behind it.
The Neon then turned left on Chapel, going the wrong way on a one-way street. It slammed into a gray Mini Cooper heading west and a parked Honda Pilot. The driver sprang out of the car and took off running. Police arrested the 18-year-old passenger.
The driver ran “the equivalent of a city block” jumping fences and running through backyards before police caught up to him on Beers Street.
The driver of the Mini Cooper and a passenger in the parked Honda Pilot were hospitalized with minor injuries.
K‑9 Officer Lars Vallin and his Dutch Shepard Xander were called in to search for a gun the driver may have ditched while running from police. Witnesses told police they saw the teenager reach for his waistband as he left the car. As of 5:45 p.m., no gun had been located.
Chief Melendez said the Neon was rented from Cheap Auto Rental in Wallingford under the name of a man who “is trying to report it as stolen.”
