From the CT Post:
A 15-year-old boy was killed and another male was wounded late Thursday afternoon in a shooting incident at State Street and Lee Avenue.
One report said the victim who died had been shot in the chest, but few details were available. Officials said the other victim’s injuries were not life-threatening, and that he had been shot in the hand and leg.
The names of the victims were not available, and there was no immediate word on whether there had been any arrests, or on what may have led to the shooting.
“It appears they were caught in a crossfire,” Bridgeport public safety spokesman Av Harris said.
Full story here.
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No value for life. May God have mercy on us all!
HAVE ANY OF THESE KILLERS BEEN CAUGHT? IF NOT, WHY NOT?
The police made an arrest yesterday.
Who are we going to blame? Finch is no longer around, Gaudett is still here but he has a new boss, Chapman. Two homicides in two weeks. The most disturbing part is innocent people are getting killed. A 19-year-old working to send money to his family in Mexico. A 14-year-old walking home from a store. I’m one to believe if you want to live a thug life or a gang banger, eventually you are going to get yours. It is what it is, you chose that life style.
I think it will be fair to blame our new Mayor Joe Ganim. He is in charge now. Wasn’t he at every shooting scene blaming Finch during his campaign? Wasn’t he asking for more police patrols and more cops on the streets?
— — — –I GOT NEWS FOR YOU MY FRIENDS OF OIB– — — —
I just happened to be visiting some friends near the shooting scene yesterday. Of course with all the commotion nearby I went to see. While there I spoke to a police officer who was guarding the crime scene. He told me as of Monday December 21st they received a directive to eliminate any extra police cars, any detail as he put it for the Housing Complex in the city, so eliminating about 20 to 25 cops off the streets on any giving night. At first I thought i was talking to another disgruntled officer but he then showed me the E-Mail that was send by Assistant Chief Nardozzi.
— — — –Thank YOU JOE GANIM– — — —
Joe, why don’t you take a ride along with the same COPS who supported you and now you hang them out to dry. Imagine responding to a shooting or a robbery in progress and not having any cover because everyone is busy and there are NO extra cops on the road. I’ll be real honest with you. If I were a cop, no cover, I’d be taking the longer route to get there. I give the men and women of the Bridgeport Police Dept credit for what they do. I know Joe Ganim’s people read the OIB blog. I voted for you. But I should have known better. You politicians are all the same.
— — — –PUBLIC SAFETY IS A PRIORITY– — — —
What a joke. Important because that’s what people wanted to hear. But now it’s not important anymore. Let the bodies drop, let’s put the officers at risk even more, let the people of Bridgeport live in fear, who cares at the end we are stuck with you for another four years. Unless you F$&@ Up again.
Merry Christmas.
What in the world does Chapman has to do with the police chief doing his job?
What does Chapman or Mayor Ganim have to do with this senseless murder? How could anyone expect either to realistically change the atmosphere of crime that permeates Bridgeport in four weeks when there hve been eight years of failure? Having unrealistic expectations for change is disingenuous at best and asinine, most likely.
The problem has existed in Bridgeport for generations: successive administrations have neglected public education and failed, miserably, to create jobs. (Bill Finch created “thousands” of jobs but those went to out-of-town union members.) So the school system is woefully underfunded and the only conflict resolution skills several generations of young people know is violence and murder. They have no marketable employment skills and no employment options even if they did. So criminal activity continues to have an allure louder than a siren song.
I have to ask why is Chapman here? We bought out his contract last time he was here and now he is back for $12,000 per month and working in the mayor’s office. If we are going to hire a new chief we should have a nationwide search and not have this retread working in the mayor’s office like a vulture.
Really, Ron and Donald. Do you guys know what sarcasm is?
You guys missed the point.
Joe Ganim during his campaign, every time a shooting or homicide took place went out there to ask Finch for more cops on the streets. He made his campaign based on public safety. Well now he’s in charge and ordered taking all the extra cops Finch put out to suppress crime, off the streets.
Don’t you guys see the double standard here? Are you guys that naïve? The criminals know when there are less cops on the streets and when there are more.
The problem Finch had with crime was the fact he kept saying crime was at a 40-year low and when there was a killing the police chief said nothing. Finch had ad after ad about crime at a 40-year low and Finch was making it easy for candidate Ganim to challenge statements by Mayor Finch.
Let’s call it the way it is. Bill Finch is a moron, dumber than a stump. He was antipathetic toward the people of the city of Bridgeport. We were supposed to re-elect his sorry ass because he brought Bass Pro, Starbucks and Chipotle to a town that relies on Walmart, Green Mountain coffee and Mi Rancho.
Gaudett and Nardozzi were warned for years about the eventual shortage of cops and chose to do nothing. Now the city pays in two ways. Overtime and more crime. Get those bums out already and move on. The assistant chief told the Connecticut Post he hadn’t seen any retirement papers filed when they asked. Now he’s trying to close the proverbial barn door after the horse has left. Idiots! Then they point fingers at the overtime it cost to police their screw-up.
And what is that supposed to mean? Gaudett and Nardozzi were supposed to put a help wanted ad in the CT Post? Put a sign in front of HQ “Hiring, inquire inside”?
If you want to blame Finch for not starting classes sooner, blame Finch and Sherwood. But it is not Gaudett’s call.
This is exactly why you are no longer on the council. You are so naive. You and Andy should film a sequel to “grumpy old men.” If Gaudett had been warned for years by the union to expect a huge shortage of cops and he did not petition Finch, he is guilty of extreme negligence. The crime rate is soaring and his incompetence is directly related to its rise. As opposed to keeping cops out of a substation that wasn’t Finch’s idea, he chose to have no cops in the terrace after a mass shooting. He played politics with the lives of those people and the entire city now pays. Finch is as guilty of ignoring the union’s pleas. Now the city has fewer cops on the street and the city has told cops OT is out of the question to cover all shifts. Good luck Bridgeport! Your best hope is to get the fools running the PD into the ground out of those positions and allow Ganim to put his people in place. Say what you will, but crime was never lower than when Ganim was here and he knows what needs to be done to protect everyone. That starts in the Chief’s office.
Phantom, the union knew for years there were going to be large numbers of cops leaving the force. How did they know that? The union did not know Larry Osborne and the city were going to give them such a great pension. The council and the mayor should be ashamed of themselves. Sure there were shortages in the ranks from attrition but the union or the membership did not make these numbers public until someone else did. Right now the cops are piling up the outside overtime because that also counts toward the pensions. You can get on Finch all you want but he gave away the store on that last pensions contract. What are you going to say when you have cops making $60K a year who would normally retire at $30K now retiring at $70-80K because of the OT? Like you say, good luck Bridgeport. Unfortunately most of the cops live out of town and don’t care.
I’m no longer on the council because I chose not to run for reelection. Period.
And Andy, you can be sure none of the cops at any level are complaining about the OT they get whether it’s outside or not.
It was only when Gaudett and Nardozzi at Finch’s direction started cracking down on OT that the union became upset.
Great work by the Bridgeport PD in catching the two shooters who killed this young man and wounded his friend. Thank You.
It didn’t take an advanced degree in rocket science to catch the two cretins who did the shooting. One was wounded and apprehended at the hospital; the other was caught on surveillance video. Neither of them appears to be a master criminal.
It may not take a rocket scientist to catch these two but if I am going to be critical at other times you have to acknowledge good police work.
Ron and Don,
Joe Ganim has been campaigning on Public Safety for the past six months. He has been Mayor or Mayor-Elect for six weeks. And all he has done was spend $150k on Wilbur Chapman. All talk and no action.
All he is doing is kissing the union’s ass.
Is there anyone who would give the Bridgeport Police Department a passing grade for the form it is in today? By form I refer to the high number of chiefs and the decreasing number of Indians who perform patrol and other basic public safety functions.
I also refer to the manner in which Bridgeport has hired classes over the years such that a Police Commission could be reviewing data regularly to monitor the potential for large retirement outflow and comment on it for the public good, but have they ever?
Speaking of the Commission, how have they handled the cases of officers who are suspended, disabled or otherwise not available for active duty? Timely? Consistent? Public?
And OVERTIME has been the major negative variance in the City budget for several years. It does not go away easily and if not seriously addressed, doesn’t go away at all. And isn’t that what happened in the City?
Most of you know there is “internal overtime” when staffing for normal police work combined with illness, vacations, and a depleted table of organization provides officers with more rounds of duty at enhanced pay % for such overtime that now feeds the State Pension benefits, that are much more generous in that regard than was Plan B.
Most of you also know there is “external overtime” that is supposedly fully reimbursed by contractors when our police personnel stand at road cuts and direct traffic.
The “external” was provided by Council Ordinance years ago and then put in union contracts. Councils can adjust ordinances and labor relations can renegotiate contracts. So is it possible the need for trained officers to stand at roadcuts may be met by a training program restricted to Bridgeport residents with compensation and benefits adjusted to the risks of the job? Just asking. Time will tell.