A VIOLENT START TO 2011 IN HARTFORD

As the sun rose on Hartford for the first morning of 2011, one body lay dead in the street on Francis Avenue, another lay dead in the morgue at the hospital and two more victims were recovering from gunshot wounds at Saint Francis Hospital.

Hopefully this isn't an indicator of things to come, but it is troubling to see the New Year starting in such a manner.

The first shootings came in shortly after 1:00am when a victim was shot in the chest inside the ballroom of the West Indian Social Club. He was transported to Saint Francis Hospital, and according to police sources he was immediately taken into surgery and is in critical but stable condition. The second shooting victim was actually the DJ at the club and he was grazed by a bullet and received superficial wounds.



The first and second homicides of 2011 occurred a little after 4:00am in front of 49 Francis Avenue. Two men were shot at what initially was thought to be a car jacking. A 24 year old male and a 30 year old male both received fatal gun shot wounds during the event. A female and her 14 year old daughter were also in the vehicle but were not injured. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:21am, the other was pronounced dead at St. Francis at 4:46am.

A suspect vehicle believed to be involved was found later in the morning in a neighboring town.

Due to limited staffing, many other calls for service went unanswered for hours as police resources were stripped to cover the two crime scenes, once again pointing to the need for increased numbers of officers for HPD.