Arrests Made, More Coming, Police Say, In East Rock 2-Car Shootout

NEW HAVEN, CT — Two teens, an 18 and a 19-year-old, have been arrested in possible connection with a "wild" two-car chase where gunfire was exchanged between the two, police said. And more arrests are likely, police said.

More than 20 rounds were fired in a few-block area of East Rock Monday, sending three New Haven schools into lockdown and an alert for a Yale University campus area.

New Haven Police Department Chief Karl Jacobson said that pending a positive ballistic match, police are "confident," that those arrested were in possession of guns that will match the two-dozen shell casing found by investigators.

Jacobson said that the two arrested, and others, are not an "official gang," but a "group well known to us." He expects that when the police department connects a new National Integrated Ballistic Information Network ballistic testing machine to the ATF in Atlanta, the sized guns will likely match other recent gun incidents.

Monday at just before 9 a.m., Wilbur Cross High School, Booker T. Washington Academy, and East Rock School were "immediately" locked down as numerous 911 calls came in to report gunfire on Lawrence Street between Livingston Street and Whitney Avenue, police spokesperson Capt. Rose Dell said.

Two cars were chasing, and shooting at, each other. Jacobson described the shootout as a "crazy scene" with "a lot of rounds fired."

The vehicles would later be identified as a Dodge Durango and an Acura MDX. Afterward, Dell said the Acura, reported stolen out of Hamden Sunday, was found in Fair Haven with numerous bullet holes.

Jacobson said that it was the police shooting task force, criminal intelligence unit with other partners, including Hamden Police and state police, that found the "suspect" vehicle. And the "persons suspected to be responsible for the gunfire," at a 727 Newhall St. house in Hamden, police said. Jacobson said it's a "known location for criminal activity." Police watched the house and arrested the two who came out, he said. And police said they recovered a Mossberg 9mm and a Glock 22, 40-caliber handgun.

Christopher Perry, 19, of New Haven, and Angelo Gibson, 18, of Bridgeport, are charged with criminal possession of a firearm, a weapon in a motor vehicle, possession of a pistol without a permit, possession of a high capacity magazine, and larceny of a motor vehicle.

Jacobson said that the State's Attorney granted a NHPD-requested search and seizure warrant for the Hamden house. There, he said, two more handguns were seized, a Sig 357 handgun and a Springfield XD 40-caliber handgun. He said that more arrests are expected.

Jacobson said that Perry and Gibson were arrested without incident: "There were multi individuals with multi handguns" and the case, and arrests, were "handled safely."

"They're well-known to us, and we think (the guns seized) will match a lot of gunfire in the city."

Dell said that detectives from the Department’s Bureau of Identification test fired all four seized firearms.

The fired cartridge casings that were found at the initial crime scene and the test fired
cartridge casings were sent for analysis and one of the guns was a match: the 9 mm fired cartridge casings recovered from the scene matched the firearm seized at 727 Newhall Street, Dell said. The results for the analysis of additional ballistic evidence and seized firearms are pending.

Mayor Justin Elicker pointed to the community coming forward with information, new CCTV cameras that were recently installed, and the work of law enforcement "led to the arrests."

"Police response was remarkable," he said, adding that new police department "policies are working."

"We're going in the right direction," he said. "We still have a lot of work to do, but we're going in the right direction."