Man Accused Of Lying About Shooting; 2 Others Arrested In Cover-Up: Stamford PD

STAMFORD, CT — Three men were arrested this past weekend after Stamford police say they lied about and attempted to cover up a shooting incident that happened in January.

On Jan. 20 around 8 p.m., Francisco Aguilar-Palacios, 26, was dropped off by family members at Stamford Hospital for a gunshot wound to the knee, according to Stamford Assistant Police Chief Richard Conklin. Officers responded to the hospital to gather more information.

"He was saying he was walking on Greenwich Avenue near the I-95 overpass and that someone had stopped and called out his name and shot him in the knee," Conklin said. "Our detectives and crime scene people responded to that area and almost immediately they felt the story was perhaps false, with a lot of inconsistencies. They couldn't find the crime scene, and nobody in that area had heard a gunshot. There was just a lot of conflicting information."

After interviews with various family members and an investigation at the reported scene of the shooting, police found that Aguilar-Palacios accidentally shot himself in his mother's car, and his younger brother, Alan Velasquez, 18, hid the gun, Conklin said.

Searches on multiple cars and a basement apartment on West Street in Stamford were conducted, and police found a spent round in Aguilar-Palacios's and Velasquez's mother's car, Conklin said, adding that two Glock pistols and ammunition were also discovered in the trunk of another family member's car.

One of the pistols was reported stolen out of Bridgeport in January 2023, Conklin noted.

After a lengthy investigation, Stamford investigator Kerilyn Whitehead completed arrest warrants for Aguilar-Palacios, Velasquez, and another man police say hindered the investigation, Jose Rivas, 39.

"It came out that [Aguilar-Palacios] was showing off the gun and he shot himself in the knee in his mother's car," Conklin said. "Francisco Aguilar-Palacios is from El Salvador, and ICE has hit him with a deportation detainer and following up with that on these charges."

Aguilar-Palacios surrendered at Stamford Police Headquarters over the weekend and was charged with criminal possession of a pistol, criminal possession of ammunition, unlawful discharge, second-degree reckless endangerment and falsley reporting an incident, Conklin said. His bond was set at $300,000.

Velasquez was taken into custody on West Street, and Rivas was arrested on Finney Lane, police said. They were charged with hindering prosecution, and given $75,000 bonds.

"There was a very good follow-up on this from investigator Kerilyn Whitehead," Conklin said. "Kudos to the crew from Major Crimes, almost from the beginning, realizing the story wasn't fitting and it was made up and then peeling it back."