Allan Appel Photo
Jose Oyuela Sunday received his official induction into the three-year-old New Haven chapter of the Guardian Angels. Call him Chepe.
Like many members of the citizen crime patrol group, he prefers to go by his nom d’ange, Chepe.
Some 25 Angels from around Connecticut came to the community house at Sunset Ridge overlooking Route 80 to applaud Chepe and to participate in the ceremony. It was chaired by the Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
A native of Honduras, Chepe said the violence in his home country continued to haunt him when he arrived in New Haven 12 years ago. “I saw a future in this country. I have two kids. I want them to be in a safe place. I’m trying to help the community”
Although Chepe now lives in Hamden, he used to live on East Street. That doesn’t mean he will focus in his patrols on areas he’s familiar with. He’s already patrolled in the Whalley Avenue area. He goes where Sausage sends him, he said.
Chepe works as a supervisor for a construction company. His kids are 5 and 7. Before officially donning the red beret, he received three months of training. That included first aid, CPR, orientation on the law and what kinds of intervention are allowed and what not.
Sliwa said Sunday’s occasion was notable for two reasons.
Feb. 13 marked the 31st anniversary of the founding of his group in the burning Bronx of 1979. Sliwa claimed there are now 5,000 Angels worldwide. That means 140 cities in 14 countries. In Connecticut, that includes Hartford, New Haven, and organizing in Norwalk is under way.
Closer to home, Sliwa and area Angel coordinator “Sausage” announced the expansion of Angel patrols into Fair Haven, specifically around troubled streets such as Woolsey, Wolcott, and Exchange. The Angels currently patrol in Westville and Quinnipiac Meadows/ Bishop Woods.
The Guardian Angels’ presence in town began three years ago when Edgewood activists Eli Greer invited Sliwa to establish a chapter to patrol the Edgewood Park area. Patrols continue there at least three evenings a week, Greer said.
Allan Appel Photo
An activist for more police protection and appropriate development in the Edgewood Park area, Greer (picture on left, with Ark,on right, a Westvillian Angel who was promoted to sergeant) was on hand Sunday. He came not only to congratulate Chepe but to offer his first ever rabbinical excursus and blessing on angels of any kind.
“Just as Samson smote the Philstine enemy with his bare hands, so do our Guardian Angels walk their beats and patrols unarmed, but with the Almighty’s protection and virtue all the while at their sides,” he said.
Now 27-year-old Chepe joins those ranks. He’s the 13th official New Haven Guardian Angel, with three more in the pipeline, according to Sausage.
According to Sliwa, the training also involved Chepe and the three other inductees (all from Hartford) journeying to New York, riding the Big Apple’s subways, and visiting Guardian Angels’ historical sites. Those sites included the McDonald’s franchise at Fordham Road in the Bronx, where Sliwa was the night manager at the time he founded the group.
Chepe well might be on patrol in Fair Haven in the days ahead. Sausage showed a reporter a map specifically targeting the crime-troubled area between James and Ferry, Grand and Chapel.
Sunday afternoon they said they were going to “hit hard” the convenience store at the corner of Lloyd and Exchange.
East Side Aldermen Jerry Antunes and Maureen O’Sullivan Best were on hand at the ceremony. They said they welcomed the extra eyes and ears that the Guardian Angels represented in their neighborhoods.
Other East Side Aldermen Joey Rodriguez and Alex Rhodeen were not present, although Sausage invited them. He also said he left messages for police district managers Lt. Jeff Hoffman and Lt. Luiz Casanova that the Angels were launching the new patrol.
No official invitation from police or a political official is required for an angel presence, according to Sliwa.
Chepe added, “It’s [the Angels organization] a good way to make friends, [while] you feel protected.”