CT Post story update here.
News release from Police Department
On July 12, 2019 at 2311 hours, Bridgeport Police received a report of shots fired and a victim shot in the area of Horace Street and York Street. Responding officers located a 17 year old male who sustained at least one gunshot wound to his chest.
This male was transported to Bridgeport Hospital by medics where he died at 0027 hours on July 13, 2019 after exhaustive efforts by ER staff to revive him. Officers encountered two large parties taking place at this location with many people on the street after the shooting occurred. Detectives remain at this location and are processing a crime scene and interviewing witnesses. The victims identity is being withheld at this time pending autopsy. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Bridgeport Police at 203-576-TIPS(8477).
Although there may be, I have never heard of any special details assigned to curtail these continuing atrocities in this city. Only poor comments from obviously ineffective leaders on the PD. Election time is coming so we will here about any “new” initiatives, of course. Actually, many comments come from a paid “spokesperson” assigned to make statements on behalf of the PD. You don’t see that in professionally run PD’s.
The patrol cops have their hands full just answering calls and the department is SEVERElY understaffed. Please don’t blame the men and women on the line. The blame for the problems on the streets of Bridgeport ARE DIRECTLY on the shoulders of the mayor and the police chief. That would be true in ANY city. When will the electorate realize that in Bridgeport, most elected people don’t care about anything but themselves.
More to come………
“SEVERLY understaffed” is an opinion or a statement of “fact”? Ganim did run last time on the hiring of 100 officers. Apparently over this term he has met or exceeded that number? But net of retirements, disabilities, transfers to other departments, etc. how many of the 100 still serve Bridgeport? And since these changes are routine and happen every year, how many people should be hired regularly? Is there an ulterior “overtime scheduling” agenda in play that is not shared with CC and taxpayer? Internal and external overtime requirements X officers at all levels more frequently eligible for OT(because of smaller number of employed officers) = those who serve and protect have big opportunities to increase their retirement incomes (and cost the taxpayer who never voted on moving from Plan B to MERS.) WHAT SAY YOU? TIME WILL TELL.
I say the same as I have always stated : don’t blame the cops. If you don’t like the $$ aspect of things then blame the politicians. If you don’t like the way the department in general is managed and run then blame the politicians. If you don’t like the way the politicians run things then vote them out.
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The “department is “SEVERElY understaffed”. Those are your words. I am not asking who to blame. I am asking you to say where the phrase, opinion, coupling of two words, comes from?
Is it a Ganim2 statement, admitting that his campaign claim in 2015 did not resolve the City problem?
Is it a “cop to former cop” complaint that you (Rich A) are surfacing for the rest of us to know?
Is it something you have seen some City records on?
Can you answer this one? Thank you in advance. Time will tell.
The problem and challenge here is that there is absolutely no accountability about the BPT Police Dept. The BPT Board of Police Commissioners is a rubber stamp. It’s like. NO ONE KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON THE BPT PD DEPT. The BPD is a para-military organization paid for (essentially) and NO ONE knows what’s is happening; how many officers,regular hours,OT Hours,etc etc etc. The way to get into the Police Department is to cut off the head of the snake. In other words,get rid of Ganim.
The standard is approximately 450 officers per 100,000 population. It’s easily researched.
This murder occurred in the 138th District, specifically the JFK Precinct.
Since Ganim has been elected, we have had 8 murders in the JFK Precinct. Four of them have occurred on Palisades Avenue which is a dead end and had two senior housing complexes.
If you recall, when Ganim was running against Finch he politicized the Trumbull Gardens shooting which was the largest mass shooting in Bridgeport’s history at the time.
Less than a year after Ganim was elected we had the largest mass shooting in Bridgeport’s history in the JFK Precinct with 13 people shot.
We have had rapes, shootings, stabbings, and a drug factory occur in JFK since Ganim was elected.
Critical information to provide to voters.
This child was apparently a student at Bullard Havens Technical School governed by the state BOE.
This is a true tragedy that impacts those far beyond the young man murdered.
He was at a Friday night party which is what 17 year olds do. It should have been a fun summer night, yet he lost his life.
Sounds like the same type of illegal speak-easy, drug-alcohol selling/dealing, gang-connected “party,” that was held just a block or two from this “party” at which 13 young people were shot in 2016. These types of “parties” are gang-connected businesses (“cottage industries,” if you will) and are held all over the city, all year long, but become much more dangerous in warmer months when more people can gather inside AND outside — presenting more opportunities for revenge shootings and spontaneous eruptions of violence.
The state and federal governments and BPD are doing a poor, collective job in monitoring Bridgeport gangs and their activities and an even poorer jobs of interrupting these types of situations in the developmental/preceding stages to the type of tragic violence that occurred last night and in summer 2016 (in the same, gang-controlled neighborhood!)…
Bridgeport should not be happy with its treatment by the state and federal government, in terms of law-enforcement back-up for BPD, and should not be pleased with the failure of BPD to have a viable strategy and tactics for predicting and interrupting these types of (often illegal) affairs — which could be interrupted just on parking, permitting, and underage drinking violations… And with BPD’s vaunted camera system, they should be able to scan the city and target problem parties before the shooting starts…(Shot Spotter is ALWAYS way too late…)
When the Block Watches/real Community Policing were encouraged and supported by City Hall and BPD (last time was really during the Fabrizi Administration — and Finch Administration to a much lesser extent), such open/obvious, dangerous, illegal gang-neighborhood activity was unheard of…
The Ganim Administration has deliberately stifled the resurrection of real Community Policing — which normally takes the form of neighborhood Block Watch formation/activity (neighbors + police)… The Ganim Administration has essentially allowed a random, haphazard approach to public safety to become the city’s modus operandi under their non-watch… The status of public safety in Bridgeport doesn’t bode well under the current administration (which is why BPD spokesperson Av Harris bailed back in February of this year — just in time to avoid the damaging controversy concerning police-power abuse at the Denver Avenue, Halloween/Birthday Party in 2017…).
Here we are again another young life cut down for no reason. Once again the comments about Ganim, the ineffective chief of police and the understaffed department are to blame. Remember there was someone at that party with a gun the will to use it and their finger on the trigger. Not Ganim’s Perez’s or a cop.
You have to ask why kids are so willing to not only carry a gun but to use it faster than any cop would? These kids don’t care about de-escalation tactics and right now it is not publically known if the victim was the intended target or not. That does not matter you have to get to the root of the problem.
Some ask where are the guns coming from? Just this past week a man was arrested because he failed to report his guns stolen. One was used when the police were trying to arrest him, another gun was recovered in Bridgeport.
It seems this man took up a sexual relationship with a female who is a Bloods gang member from Bridgeport. So it is not hard to figure out how his guns so called “stolen” ended up on the street. There still are a few more guns of his that still unaccounted for. This is one man and one example how guns get on the street, one.
The criminal Justice and correctional systems are broken is another reason why things are the way they are. Judges are too lenient and mandatory non negotiable penalties are desperatly need. If kids are willing to carry or use a gun then they should be ready to spend decades in jail. No more plea bargains , time off for good behavior or probation. You get ten years you do it all and a day, jail it too crowded, too bad deal with it.
If telling the police is so frowned upon then the penalty for carrying a gun should be as high and severe you don’t want to be near one. The news 12 reporter said despite the number if witnesses, noone was talking. Nothing new there.
I don’t want to hear kids brains are not mature enough that they don’t understand what they are doing bull, they knew what they were doing when they squeezed the trigger. Enough with the excuses to downplay the suspect why they are the way they are or why they did what they did. What about the victim and his or her family and the public in general? Any hopes and dreams this 17 year old had or what his family had for him are now gone. Who knows what he could have done or become.
So what happens now , the detectives have the uphill battle with trying to solve another homicide with little or any cooperation. Another family has to bear the burden of a funeral and the emotional strain that takes. A funeral for a teenager is not normal but yet all too common when it comes from street violence. Sadly his is not or will be the last one.
My condolences to his family.
How many homicides have we had in BPT year to date..I’ve been googling and I can’t The the info. I am also trying to find the total homiced per year for the last 10 years and I am just not finding it. Are there some Sherlock Holmes that are out there and better than me.
Ganim will only use this as an opportunity to score political points.
Mr. Gyure,
I am sure there is someone within the police department that has the number you seek. The FBI requires keeping track of crime statistics.
I would call the record room or the detective bureau to find the person you need to contact.
Good luck with your quest.