As Freddy Salinas’s torn family struggles to recover, police announced they’ve tracked down the man who shot him when he came to the aid of a friend.
Salinas (pictured), a recent immigrant from Ecuador, was killed on Feb. 25. He stepped into a staircase to help a friend who was being robbed and took a bullet in the chest. He died at 27, leaving behind a five-month-old baby and a distraught young fianc√©e, Silvia Bueno, 21. After his death, the city’s Ecuadorian community united to support the struggling family and send his body home.
Police announced Friday they’ve identified a 17-year-old boy as the man who pulled the trigger. The suspect is already incarcerated in Cheshire for violating parole for a crime an unrelated offense, said police Capt. Peter Reichard.
Police plan to charge the teen with felony murder, robbery in the first, larceny in the second, carrying a pistol without a permit and unlawful discharge.
The suspect lived on Grafton Street, just around the corner from Freddy, Reichard said. Police believe the teen was hanging out near Freddy’s Ferry Street home on Feb. 25 when he saw Freddy’s first-floor neighbor, Ricardo León, step out of the house to go to the corner store.
“He saw an opportunity.” Suspecting the neighbor had cash, the teen hid inside Freddy’s house and allegedly ambushed León when he returned, Reichard said. Freddy heard his friend’s cries and ran to the stairwell, where the teen allegedly shot him once in the chest, ending his life.
Police recovered the weapon within a week of the crime, Reichard said. He credited Detectives Steve Teague and Ed Reynolds for cracking the case.
“They pounded the pavement in Fair Haven,” he said, talking to neighbors and piecing together what happened that night.
Reichard thanked the Fair Haven community for stepping forward with information.
Crimes against undocumented immigrants often go unreported because immigrants fear opening up to police, said Reichard. The city recently approved a general order directing police not to demand immigration papers when responding to 911 calls.
“This goes to show” police are there to help, Reichard said. Police want to “get the predators off the streets” that are preying on immigrants.
“Trapped” In Grief And Debt
Meanwhile, Freddy’s family, split between two worlds in Connecticut and his home of Ecuador, is struggling to recover. Upon his death, fellow Ecuadorians and members of the St. Rose of Lima Church helped cobble together money to send his body home.
Silvia and her baby have since left the home, and the city, where her loved one was killed.
“It was too difficult for them to be there,” reported Father Jim Manship, pastor of St. Rose’s. On his recent voyage to Ecuador, Manship spent a day with Silvia’s family in her hometown of Sigsig. The poor local economy drove Silvia, her father and her sister to the USA to build a new life. Manship related the pain the family is now feeling, struggling under the weight of separation, grief and debt.
Manship described the hometown as an agricultural community with a beautiful views and a river running through it.
“They’re just simple folk who are just looking to get a little capital to build a little house and to be secure in their farming area,” he said of Silvia’s family. Now they risk losing their home in effort to support the $30,000 debt incurred by Silvia and Freddy’s voyage to the USA.
“All the mother wants is for the family to be together again, but there is even more of a debt to pay off,” said Manship.
“They’re trapped economically,” the pastor said. “All they want to do is see one another, but they’re trapped.”