New Haven Police have arrested two men suspected of working together to commit two daytime home invasions in the city this month.
The two crimes happened in the mid-afternoon, a week apart and the intruders tied the victims up.
On Monday, May 6, two women ages 71-year-old and 58, were returning with groceries to their Huntington Street residence at 4 p.m. when the home invasion occurred, police said.
A man with a gun and another man confronted the two women, forced them inside and tied them up, police said. They fled in one victim’s car.
Then, at 3:17 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, there was another home invasion on Osborn Street.
Two residents, a 38-year-old man and 32-year-old woman, told investigators they were inside their home when two masked men with handguns confronted them, tied them up and ransacked the residence for valuables.
The intruders stole a victim’s car in that case as well, police said.
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Police recovered both vehicles and surveillance video from one case led to a suspect.
A camera on Henry Street captured surveillance footage of the vehicle taken during the Osborn Street home invasion, including a suspect, police said.
Investigators connected the home invasions to someone named “Jovann,” police said. Last week, Hamden Police helped New Haven police find him, police said.
Hamden officers were chasing a stolen car and apprehended Jovann McCullough, 19, of New
Haven. New Haven detectives were told he closely resembled the person captured on the video surveillance, went to speak with him and charged McCullough with home invasion.
Then, police identified John Benjamin, 22, of New Haven as McCullough’s conspirator, police said.
On Monday night, New Haven police and members of the U.S. Marshals Service Task Force apprehended Benjamin at his Highland Street home.
He is being held on $1 million bond and was served with a warrant by parole for first degree escape from a halfway house that he’d been remanded to.
He is due in court on Wednesday morning.
McCullough, who has been in custody since last week, has been held on $150,000.00 bond. He is to be served with the warrant for the second home invasion which has a $500,0000 bond, according to police.
