New Haven Chief Takes Over After Violent Weekend

On Monday morning, the new chief of New Haven police Frank Limon was sworn in.  He takes the reins as the city reels from a violent Easter weekend in which two people were killed, another was beaten with a bat and two others shot.

Chief Limon spent part of his first official day on the job answering questions about crime, and what he's going to do to curb the violence.

"My style is to get under and assist what's in place now.  I want to get all the crime stats, I want to get the location of where the incidents are happening and pinpoint where things are happening...more of a hotspot policing type of model," Limon explained moments after being sworn in.  

An 18-year-old man was shot in the back of the head on Sunday afternoon and was pronounced dead on Monday morning.

Radcliff Deroche, 18, of New Haven was riding an all-terrain-vehicle at 3:19 p.m. on West Division Street in the Newhallville neighborhood when he was shot, police said police. He died from injuries sustained and police say he is the eighth homicide in the city in 2010.

Kenneth Bagley, 31, of Hamden was found dead in a car on Derby Avenue over the weekend. Bagley died from multiple gunshot wounds, said police.

Hours after Deroche was shot, police responded to a double shooting in the area of Hurlburt and Rosette streets. A 20-year-old had been shot in the chest and was taken to the hospital in critical condition. A 23-year-old man was shot in the foot and is expected to recover.

Another man was beaten in the head with a baseball bat and is hospitalized in critical condition.

Authorities say Angel Perez, 22, of Troy, New York, was beaten with a baseball bat after he left a West Haven nightclub early Sunday morning and was found on Ella Grasso Boulevard in New Haven.

No arrests have been made in any of the shootings.  Chief Limon appealed to the public for help.

"If there's any message that the community hears today is that we need you on our team.  You're a key member on our team for reducing any crime in the community," he said.

Anyone with information on these incidents is asked to call the Major Crime Unit at 203-946-6304 or the New Haven Police Department's tip line at 203-946-6296.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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