If you’ve spent any time online at all, you’ve run across facile libertarian dismissals of gun control. It must be pleasant, to sit in some isolated suburban enclave thinking about these things in theory, in much the same way that the neocons once sat around imaginging how perfectly everything would unfold in Iraq. Unfortunately, in the community in which I live, these pleasant little fantasies are translated into harsh reality on pretty much a nightly basis.
A teenage suspect in at least one slaying was killed Wednesday night in the Hill neighborhood and police were examining the possibility that his killing was retaliation.
Lawrence “Little Larry” Mabery, 17, of Newhallville, was shot in the head on Frank Street Wednesday night. At the time, he was carrying two guns, according to police, but apparently never had the chance to draw.
He was one of four people wounded over the course of two hours Wednesday. The other victims, all teenagers, suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Calvin Franklin, 16, was shot in the buttocks on Orchard Street, a few blocks away and just minutes before Mabery was shot. He said he was standing outside 43 Orchard St. when a gunman opened fire. He later showed up at the hospital and police chased a suspect down Asylum Street and arrested him.
Muro said that young man had not been charged in the shooting and the investigation was ongoing.
Then, shortly before midnight, police were called to the Scott Ridge apartments at 437 Eastern St., where two men had been shot. The victims ran into unit and tried to hide from cops, police said. They later said they were in a nearby wooded area when they were shot. The injuries were minor.
One of the victims was identified as Dustin Parker, 18. Police were still trying to confirm the identity of the second man, who may have provided a false name.
So began a wild few days in New Haven. In addition to the shootings, police later Wednesday responded to Sherman Avenue on a report of gunfire and subsequently chased two all-terrain vehicles all around the city.
Then on Thursday, a gunman opened fire near the intersection of Dixwell Avenue and Charles Street and then fled behind the Dixwell Plaza.
Just after 6 p.m., a gunman opened fire in the area of Greenwood Street. Police detained one suspect and were searching for another.
This is what I think about, every time I read some moronic “cars-kill-people-too-heh-indeedy” post — not some fantasy of the way I imagine the distant world to be, but tragedies that are actually unfolding, in my city, pretty much every night.