New Haven Police continue to investigate a triple shooting and a homicide that happened on Wednesday. It’s among the several shootings the city has seen in the last few weeks, and leaders and law enforcement are working to confront the violence.
Candles are placed on Starr Street where New Haven police say 49-year-old Anthony Oden was shot and killed Wednesday.
“Everyone knew him. Nice young man. Never involved in any violence. So every gunshot that’s fired in the community, every non-fatal shooting, and more so a homicide traumatizes a community,” said Connecticut Violence Intervention Program Executive Director Leonard Jahad.
Hours later, investigators responded to a triple shooting on Ferry Street.
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In recent weeks, New Haven police have responded to multiple shootings including on Chapel Street where one person was injured, Starr Street where a teen was hurt, Beers Street for a triple shooting, Howard Avenue, Sylvan Avenue, and Market Street. The victims in those shootings survived.
Authorities said nearly all the shootings they see in New Haven are between people who know each other, describing them as targeted.
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The city and community leaders say they work to try and prevent retaliation.
“We try to change their thinking around the use of guns to settle scores, to mediate, to just change the culture,” Jahad said.
“We’ve very focused on confronting the violence with a number of strategies,” said New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.
The mayor said police have had more than 100 gun arrests so far this year, far greater than the total last year. They’re planning to install hundreds of cameras throughout the city to assist with solving homicides and shootings.
“Bridgeport and Hartford have way more cameras than we do, and frankly, their solve rate for homicides and shootings is higher than ours. And they have told us in almost every solve, they have used cameras to help lead to identifying the perpetrator,” Elicker said.
The mayor adds they also work to engage the most high-risk young people because it isn’t just about policing and solving crimes.
“It’s also about providing more resources. We’ve proposed to the Board of Alders a significant increase in funding in particular for youth programming, job training, things like that,” Elicker said.
Jahad said reaching youth engaged in risky activity is about relationship building, being consistent, caring and communicating.
He said it’s work the entire community can take part in, but he adds the one thing they have no control over is the easy access to guns.
“Kids can put their hands on a gun quicker than they can get a head of lettuce in their communities,” Jahad said. “If you can just take the availability of access to guns, you can just give us a chance.”
The mayor said the community’s help is crucial. He said oftentimes, it could be that one last piece of information that leads to solving a crime. You can report information to police anonymously.
To learn more about Connecticut Violence Intervention Program, you can click here.
