Sammy Westfall
At 2:40 a.m. last Saturday, New Haven police officers responded to the shooting of a 30-year-old city resident near the intersection of Elm Street and Howe Street.
New Haven Police Media Liaison Anthony Duff said that that the victim — who the police did not identify — was shot multiple times in the upper torso and arm. Duff told the News that the victim sustained “life-threatening injuries” and remains in critical condition as of Sunday morning. The victim was transported via ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital following the incident.
William Reid ’19 — who lives in an apartment a few buildings down from the area of the incident and is also an editor of the Yale Daily News magazine — was sitting on his bed when he heard “a series of five or six really loud bangs.” From his living room window, which looks out onto the street, he saw a group of people gathered right outside of Three Sheets, a bar and grill at 372 Elm St., and heard some yelling.
Roughly five minutes after the gunshots, at least seven police cars lined the block, Reid said. The New Haven police closed down the block with crime scene tape and interviewed witnesses. A city fire truck and ambulance showed up at the scene after the police arrived, according to Reid.
Reid said that the closed-off area spanned two blocks — from the intersection of Elm Street and Howe Street to the intersection of Elm Street and Park Street.
Reid left his apartment a few minutes after the officers had arrived, and he spoke to one of the witnesses after the event. The witness told Reid that he was roughly fifteen feet away from the scene when the incident happened. According to the witness, the victim walked out of Three Sheets with a takeout food container and was shot near the curb. The shooter then ran off, according to the witness.
Reid said that he did not see any Yale Police officers at the incident. Higgins did not respond to a News’ question over the weekend about whether the Yale Police Department responded to the incident along with the New Haven Police Department.
A Yale Alert sent at 3:46 a.m. on Saturday notified the Yale community of the shooting and asked individuals to “avoid the area while the police investigate.” In a follow-up email to the Yale community on Saturday night, Higgins reported that the victim — who is not a member of the Yale community — was lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds when NHPD officers arrived on the scene of the incident.
While Andrea Masterson ’19 was not at her off-campus apartment at the time of the incident, she told the News that she was “pretty rattled to hear that it happened outside of [her] home.” Still, Kate Halabi ’19, who also lives in an apartment on Elm Street, said that she feels safe despite the incident.
Ashia Ajani ’19, a student who lives in an off-campus building near where the incident took place, told the News that PTSD after events like shootings is rampant in communities next to Yale’s campus, yet it only becomes relevant once it reaches Yale’s boundaries.
“These events, though scary and potentially damaging long-term-mental-health-wise, only seem to be important when they are in close proximity to Yale’s campus,” she said.
In an email to the News, Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said students should use the LiveSafe App and follow the safety tips provided by Yale.
According to Duff, the incident triggered a Shotspotter gunfire alert — a city-implemented technology that detects the precise location of gunfire. Following the alert, Duff said that the NHPD received “multiple” 911 calls reporting the shooting incident.
Duff wrote in a Saturday press release that investigators from the New Haven Police Department are asking that anyone with information about the shooting contact the NHPD Detective Bureau.
Sammy Westfall | sammy.westfall@yale.edu