Shooting on High St.

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New Haven violence invaded Yale’s fraternity row this past weekend.

A city resident was shot on High Street near fraternities Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Phi Epsilon at approximately 12:48 a.m. Saturday. Witnesses on the scene reported hearing three to four shots. YPD Chief Ronnell Higgins sent out an e-mail to the campus at 2:30 a.m. reporting that a suspect was arrested near the shooting in the possession of a handgun. SAE brother Will Bradley ’12, who lives in the SAE house, said the YPD had stationed patrol officers on both ends of frat row during the weekends in the aftermath of a Sept. 19 shooting on Crown Street, but sometime earlier this semester, the patrols stopped, he said.

Everett Rosenfeld

The YPD could not be reached for comment by the News on Sunday about the cessation of their frat row patrols.

Yale Police Department Lt. Joseph Vitale said the morning of the shooting that the victim was not a Yale student and that his injuries were not life-threatening.

Both YPD and New Haven police officers investigated the area in front of the Cambridge Arms apartments on 32 High St., Vitale said, adding that the shooting victim had been shot in the arm and was removed from the scene via ambulance. Although the shooting happened on Yale’s main fraternity row, four of five frat row residents interviewed by the News said they were not worried about the incident.

“I’m not really too concerned about it,” SAE brother Etkin Tekin ’12 said. “I still think we’re in a good neighborhood.”

Police closed High Street between Ay! Salsa and the Crown Street intersection in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, but reopened it when the on-scene investigation was considered complete at 1:32 a.m.

At 1:40 a.m. Yale sent out a text-message alert about the shooting, asking that students avoid the area. This was the first Yale alert since Nov. 22, and the first ever about a shooting.

Though a suspect has been arrested, the investigation is still ongoing and is being handled by the New Haven Police Department because the shooting took place on a city street. NHPD spokesman Joseph Avery did not return requests for comment. Details of the arrested suspect and the shooting will be released on Monday.

This incident is the seventh time shots were fired near Yale’s campus in two months, a situation that YPD Spokesman Steven Woznyk has said the department is actively working on. Strategies have included doubling the department’s patrols and specifically targeting high-risk areas.

Saturday’s shooting was the closest incident to campus since at least five shots were fired outside of Alpha Delta Pizza on Elm and Howe streets April 9.

Like the fraternity row shooting, the April 9 incident occurred early on a Saturday morning between New Haven residents not associated with Yale. Both shootings took place in a popular late-night hangout area for undergraduates.

“Obviously the shooting is pretty scary,” said Bradley, adding that he hoped the YPD would reinstate the patrol that used to be stationed at both ends of frat row.

One fraternity brother, who did not wish to be named, but lives on the block and called the NHPD after hearing the shots, said he was impressed by the police response to the incident. A police SUV arrived within seconds of the shots being fired, he said.

2011 is on track to be the deadliest year in the past decade for New Haven; the city has already seen 13 murders this year.