Two Guns Confiscated by Stamford Police Who Are Working to Stem Shootings on the City's West Side

While it is almost miraculous that a Stamford man has survived a shooting that left him with what Stamford Police say is probably a permanent part in his hair, investigators are concerned that a simmering conflict between neighborhood gangs could become deadly.

“They’re neighborhood groups, not organized in a gang sort of way, but they have their alliances to their neighborhood or housing complex,” is how Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin described the recent spate of shootings on the city’s West side.

There were have been several incidents of gunfire on the West Side of Stamford in recent days including the Tuesday, Dec. 2 incident in which a 21-year-old man whose scalp was grazed by a bullet.

“He’s extremely lucky,” said Conklin. “He has a natural part now, dead center from his forehead to the back of his scalp.”

While the description may appear humorous to some, Conklin said what’s more serious is that the feud between the loosely organized neighborhood gangs is that residents won’t cooperate with police and participants are leaving loaded weapons outside homes.

“Unfortunately, a number of witnesses are not as forthcoming and cooperative as we’d like them to be,” Conklin said. “We’re asking the community, residents, community leaders, family members, loved ones, if they know something to contact us and we implore restraint. If this continues, it’s not going to end well.”

To complicate matters, Conklin said officers found a loaded shotgun hidden outside a Myano Lane home and an assault weapon and it ammunition hidden on Connecticut Avenue this week. Conklin said police are concerned that weapons hidden outdoors could be found by youngsters who think the weapons are toys.

In addition to houses being shot at, there have been several cars hit by the flying bullets. “They’re casualties of the chaos,” Conklin said.

“We’ve definitely beefed up patrols with marked and unmarked cars,” Conklin said.

Anyone with information about the shootings is encouraged to call police at 203-977-4417.

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