8 August, 2015 – THE NHPD RECOGNIZES HERO OFFICER
The last time fifty-six year old Albert Sanford was seen was on Tuesday, July 14th. He wouldn’t be reported missing until Friday despite having missed a dialysis appointment on Monday.
At 6:55 PM, Officer Christian Bruckhart was called to the Valley Street home of the missing man by his eighty-seven year old mother, Gloria Washington and his ex-wife, Linda Kendall. They’d filed a missing person report a few hours earlier but had new information for Police.
The women told the Officer they’d spotted his car parked at the upper Whalley Avenue Burger King – a clue that would lead Officer Bruckhart on a mission to find the missing gentleman.
Officer Bruckhart spoke with the manager of the restaurant in hopes of finding out more. She said she remembered seeing Mr. Sanford on Tuesday at about 2:00 PM. She said he left the restaurant on foot because he claimed he’d lost his car keys. He told her he had a spare key at home and was setting off to retrieve it. She said she saw him heading east on Whalley Avenue and “looked sick”.
Officer Michael Valente and Patrick Bengston joined Officer Bruckhart and the three set off to search for the missing man. They headed out on foot from East Ramsdell Street to the Valley Street Townhouses. They searched the wooded area on either side of Emerson Street and from there toward Blake Street.
Night fell and the steep embankments made further searching difficult. A stream that runs the length of the gully in the middle of the wooded area made searching in the dark quite dangerous. Officer Bruckhart contacted area hospitals and was told they would inform him should Mr. Sanford show up. Officer Bruckhart called the dialysis center, but there was no answer. They’d closed for the day.
Officer Bruckhart issued a Silver Alert and should have been finishing his reports before heading in at the end of his shift. He should have been but couldn’t. He knew the missing man was most likely in the woods and knew he’d been without life preserving medical treatments for days.
Officer Bruckhart started searching again.
At 10:30 PM, Officer Bruckhart found Albert Sanford in a culvert about fifty yards into a wooded area near Dayton Street across from the CVS Drugstore. Thankfully, he was alive and although disoriented, he was physically well. He said he’d been trapped there since Tuesday. Officer Bruckhart summoned the expert assistance of a squad from the NHFD to pull him from the culvert.
Mr. Sanford was taken by ambulance to the hospital for an evaluation. The Silver Alert was cancelled.
Officer Bruckhart drove to the hospital where he spoke a bit more with Mr. Sanford. Now comfortable in a hospital gown and on a soft gurney, Sanford told Officer Bruckhart he had no recollection of being at the Burger King but remembered entering the woods. He said he’d been cutting through there for “eons”, but that the trail was so covered by overgrown foliage, he’d gotten lost. He said as much as he tried, he couldn’t find his way back to the road.
The relieved Officer’s last words in his police report; “I advised him not to use the trails in the woods anymore”.
Officer Christian Bruckhart spent the first five years of his policing career serving the town of Wallingford, CT.
He was hired by New Haven on March 31, 2014. He has recently been assigned to the department’s narcotics Enforcement Unit.
8 August, 2015 – ARMED WOULD-BE ROBBER ARRESTED AFTER CHASE
At 1:14 AM, a twenty-six year old man (who appears and identifies himself as a woman) hailed Officer Hugo Villacres Jr. as he drove down Grand Avenue near Ferry Street. He told him a man with a gun tried robbing him of his cellular telephone but he got away. The man told the Officer that he’d been approached by a heavy-set black man who said to him, “How much do you charge”? He said he was waiting for a friend, at which point the man tried taking his cell phone which was partially tucked into his shirt.
She described the would-be robber to the Officer who in turn broadcast it to colleagues in the area. Officer Jason Santiago was patrolling nearby and spotted a suspect. The suspect spotted him and took off running. The Officer ran after him. The suspect threw down a handgun. The Officer tackled the suspect. The gun was recovered. It was in fact a BB gun.
The victim positively identified Charles Capers (picture attached) (4-24-1986), of Chelsea Street in Stratford, CT, as his attacker.
He was arrested and charged with criminal attempt to commit robbery in the third degree, criminal attempt to commit larceny in the second degree, possession of a facsimile firearm and interfering with Police.
Note: An earlier unrelated report of a minor assault involving Caspers is being investigated. He is accused by someone else, about an hour earlier, of slapping them and that he was armed with “some type of gun” when the incident happened.
8 August, 2015 – COUPLE ARRESTED IN DOMESTIC ASSAULT
At 8:50 AM, Officers were dispatched to 181 Winthrop Avenue after a couple’s heated argument turned violent.
Kenneth Johnson (4-4-1992), of Butler Street in New Haven, and Jamilah Jackson (4-9-1989), of Winthrop Avenue in New Haven, are boyfriend and girlfriend. Jackson told Officer Paul Cavalier that the two started arguing over her presumption Johnson was involved with another woman. The dispute reportedly escalated when, according to Jackson, she was punched and choked by Johnson. She said she armed herself with a kitchen knife and drove it into Johnson’s left leg. She gave the Officer the knife.
Johnson (picture attached) reported it was he that was the victim – that Jackson (picture attached) started the argument over the alleged other woman and that it was she that escalated the argument to violence.
Jackson was treated at the scene by EMTs for injuries to her lips and hands. Johnson was taken by ambulance to Yale – New Haven Hospital to be treated for his leg wound. It is not life-threatening.
Both combatants were arrested. Johnson was charged with assault in the second degree, breach of peace in the second degree and strangulation in the third degree. Jackson was charged with assault in the first degree and breach of peace.
9 August, 2015 – SHOOTING INVESTIGATION
At 12:42 AM, Officers were summoned to the Emergency Department at Yale – New Haven Hospital’s St. Raphael’s campus after a man arrived seeking treatment for a gunshot wound.
The victim, thirty year old Lemar McCullough told Officers he’d walked from his Lexington Avenue home to his girlfriend’s house in Hamden and then to another acquaintance’s home on George Street when along the way he was confronted by a black man who said, “Don’t move” and shot him in his leg.
McCullough said he walked to the hospital. He said the man who shot him stood under six feet tall and was heavy-set.
Officers searched the area. No evidence of the shooting was found – ballistic or otherwise. No reports of gunfire were phoned in and no one in the area reported hearing the shot. There were no ShotSpotter activations.
9 August, 2015 – SHOOTING INVESTIGATION
At 12:45 AM, a woman entered the Woodward Avenue Police Sub-Station and reported a fight and gunfire occurring at that moment at the nearby Fireside Bar, located at 810 Woodward Avenue.
Officers arrived quickly and learned a fight had erupted inside. They reported that staff members pushed the fighters outside and did not phone Police. Moments later, gunfire erupted.
At 2:17 AM, twenty-four year old Kevin Crouch, of Shelton Street in Bridgeport, CT, walked into the Emergency Department at Yale – New Haven Hospital. Hospital staff phoned Police and Detectives responded. The victim said he was at the Fireside Bar when he heard gunshots. He said that as he ran with the crowd, he was shot in the ankle. He drove himself to the hospital. His wound is minor – no more than a graze. He said he didn’t see who’d shot him.
9 August, 2015 – ARMED TEENAGER ARRESTED
At 6:16 PM, Officers responding to a suspicious person complaint encountered three young men lurking about the Advanced Auto Parts store on Rout 80 at Eastern Street. The three young men spotted the Officers. One took off running. An Officer took off after him and caught him a short distance away. The teen fought with the Officer. During his attempt to get away, he grabbed a gun and threw it away.
The teen was arrested and the gun was recovered. It was a loaded Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun. The gun was reported stolen in South Carolina.
The teen was charged with several gun charges.
Note: We are prohibited from releasing the identity of juvenile perpetrators or victims.
9 August, 2015 – GUNFIRE INVESTIGATION
At 10:00 PM, Officers were called to the area of 150 Fairmont Avenue after a resident reported hearing three gunshots. She told the Officers she’d first heard a single shot and then seen two men, clad in dark clothing fire two more shots toward a house.
A nearby house was struck once. The projectile did not appear to fully penetrate the exterior wall and no one was reported to have been injured. Police collected the evidence and photographed the scene. No suspects have been identified.
9 August, 2015 – GUNFIRE INVESTIGATION
At 11:20 PM, Officers were dispatched to Roosevelt’s Bar on State Street at Bradley Street after caller to 911 reported gunfire.
Arriving Officers encountered a large crowd. They were patrons at the bar’s “White Party” (a themed party at which patrons are dressed in all white).
It took officers some time to disperse the crowds and search for evidence. None were very cooperative when questioned about the gunfire. No evidence could be found. Witnesses did report gunfire.
A later report of a person shot at Popeye’s Fried Chicken Restaurant on Whalley Avenue seems to be related.
Note: On May 31, 2015, five people were shot in a single incident at a “White Party” held on the second floor of a downtown New Haven tattoo parlor. Police do not suggest any connection but caution the public that such themed parties do not have a good track record.
10 August, 2015 – SHOOTING INVESTIGATION
Just minutes past midnight, Officers responded to the Popeye’s Fried Chicken Restaurant at Whalley Avenue and Dwight Street after several callers reported gunfire and a person shot.
Arriving Officers found the victim, eighteen year old Jahsean Warren, of Front Street in West Haven. Warren gave Officers a generic description of the black man he said shot him. 5’07”, wearing a black tank-top, shorts and no shoes.
The victim wasn’t cooperative. Officers found evidence of the gunfire at Popeye’s and in nearby on Dwight Street.
Witnesses described a large private “White Party” that broke up after gunfire erupted at Roosevelt’s Restaurant on State Street at Bradley Street just minutes earlier. The witnesses claimed the dispute from the Roosevelt’s incident moved to Popeye’s, where things erupted again..
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