Public works staff cleaned up Tuesday morning.
As a fleeing suspect barreled his BMW X5 through New Haven streets in the middle of the night, Hamden police followed close behind. Lt. Marty Tchakirides had to make a split-second decision. He radioed an urgent message for New Haven’s cops who had joined the chase.
Everyone “28ing” (staying in close pursuit) should immediately “78” (resume normal patrol), Tchakirides commanded. “I almost got 22’d [in an accident]!”
Paul Bass Photo
Tchakirides (at left, with Lt. Rebecca Sweeney) at Tuesday’s Compstat meeting.
Hours later, after the driver had crashed into a home at the corner of Winchester and Compton and firefighters had to rescue a man trapped under the SUV, Tchakirides, Westville’s top cop, got feedback on that decision from top brass. The feedback came in the presence of 70 cops, community members, and federal and state law enforcement officials gathered for the weekly Compstat statistics and strategy meeting at police headquarters.
Lt. Luiz Casanova, who oversees patrol, noted that when supervisors like Tchakarides make those instant decisions, “sometimes they’re unpopular with the rank and file.”
“It was a great decision” to call off New Haven’s end of the chase, Casanova said, and congratulated him.
Chief Dean Esserman seconded the congratulations. He said he planned to meet later Tuesday with Hamden’s chief to discuss the incident.
“The wrong people and innocents get hurt in chases,” Esserman said. “Big cities can rarely afford a chase.”
Hamden did not call off the chase. And an innocent person did get hurt. Not to mention rudely awakened.
Thomas MacMillan Photos
The SUV was entirely in the house when it came to rest.
The incident began at 12:36 a.m. Tuesday when the driver, wanted for motor-vehicle violations, fled Hamden cops, according to New Haven police spokesman Officer David Hartman.
The car went through one wall and knocked a hole in a second.
The driver fled into New Haven. The man eventually drove into the first-floor apartment of a sleeping 34-year-old man. The SUV pinned the man underneath. The driver fled; cops and city firefighters arrived on the scene.
About 29 firefighters from Squads 1 and 2 and 8, Engine 6, and Truck 4 went to work rescuing the pinned, rudely awakened man, according to Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Black.
“The first engine [on the scene], Engine 6, called for additional help. They set up hose lines to keep any fire from erupting from the accident of the car going into the house and to protect the occupant under the car should a fire occur,” Black said Tuesday morning.
“All the other companies were in charge of checking the interior of the house for any occupants that were left, stabilizing the vehicle so it wouldn’t move, and extricating the individual from beneath the vehicle.
“What I saw was a group effort of people doing what they’re supposed to and doing it very well.”
The victim “suffered second and third-degree burns to his buttocks and lower extremities” and was treated at the Hospital of St. Raphael, according to Hartman.
The sidewalk at the scene of the crash was littered with classic comics.