{"id":680,"date":"2019-03-31T13:55:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T13:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/31\/2019331recent-shootings-spike-fear-in-hamden\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:33:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:33:55","slug":"2019331recent-shootings-spike-fear-in-hamden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/31\/2019331recent-shootings-spike-fear-in-hamden\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent shootings spike fear in Hamden"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shooting incident in a Hamden parking lot has residents worrying once again about crime in their town.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A shooting incident on March 17<\/span><\/a> outside the Off The Hook Restaurant shortly after closing left two bullet holes in the passenger side of a parked car and one shell casing on the ground.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Though no one was injured in the incident, it nevertheless left some residents worried.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Guiseppe Pellino Jr., a Hamden resident and employee at the Wood-n-Tap restaurant, said he was upset to hear about the shooting on Dixwell Avenue. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary to hear that, especially when it is so close to home,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s literally around the corner from me.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is one of several crimes involving firearms that happened in Hamden recently. Last month, in a two-week span, there were two armed<\/span><\/a> robberies <\/span><\/a>and a woman was shot<\/span><\/a> in her home<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pellino said he loves Hamden and is worried about the increase in crime.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, this was a great town, and it still is… I don\u2019t know what really has changed over the years,\u201d he said. \u201cI worry because I love being in Hamden and I don’t remember this being an issue before.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The recent shooting in the Off The Hook parking lot is not the first shooting there. In September<\/span><\/a>, a man shot another man in his ankle and a woman in her thigh. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Cheng, the manager at Green Laundry, which is two stores over from Off The Hook, says he thinks the police should have a larger presence in this part of Hamden. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this neighborhood is that safe compared to others, especially at night,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there should be more police patrols in front of this parking lot because of the restaurant [Off The Hook].\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cheng has managed Green Laundry for three years and says he feels crime has risen since Off the Hook moved into the neighborhood in 2017. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore they moved here, there was a crime or incident maybe every few months,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they came, it was more and I heard about a lot of fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Operators of Off The Hook could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cheng said he believes that dangerous events like these have a negative effect on his business and customers. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the feeling of people like Cheng, patrol officer Angela Vey said she thinks crime fears are overblown.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI really do think people feel safe,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially when they see officers in the community and interacting with people.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vey said she was unable to comment on the March 17 shooting because the investigation is ongoing. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do a lot to ensure safety,\u201d Vey said. \u201cWe have a lot of proactive patrols, officers are out stopping cars or suspicious people, we have bicycle and motorcycle patrols and in the summer we have walking beat patrols on certain days.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yet, despite Vey\u2019s assertion of Hamden\u2019s general safety, a website that ranks safety of cities and towns,neighborhoodscout.com<\/span><\/a> ranks it in the bottom third of towns and cities in the U.S. when it comes to safety.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlike Cheng, Pellino says he has noticed stepped-up police patrols.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, you definitely notice more of a presence,\u201d Pellino said. \u201cHamden is pretty safe. I feel safe and it makes me feel good knowing there is always patrols on the street and in the neighborhoods, Honestly, they do a great job in the town.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hamden locals in fear after recent shooting in surrounding parking lots. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142],"tags":[141,7,166,351],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage","tag-crime","tag-hamden","tag-safety","tag-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}