Theater plans security upgrades

Written by Donald Eng
Thursday, 29 October 2009 13:23

Police are hoping to make more arrests in the Friday night shooting at the Bow Tie Cinema that had patrons diving for cover as rival groups of teens fought and then exchanged gunfire.

So far, officers have arrested five Bridgeport teens in the melee, and more arrests might be forthcoming.

About a dozen Trumbull police cars, joined by an equal or greater number from Bridgeport, responded to the theater Oct. 23 at about 11:30 p.m. after several theater patrons called to report an altercation involving a large number of youths.

“It looks like they started yelling in the theater lobby, then moved outside where the shooting started,” Police Chief Tom Kiely said.

Shortly after moving to the parking lot, numerous shots rang out. Police later recovered spent shell casings of three different calibers, which have since been sent to the State Police lab for analysis.

There were no reported injuries from the shooting, though bullets did strike several cars. Kiely declined to speculate how many of the youths could have been armed or how many shots might have been fired.

“It’s impossible to say for sure because even if you find cases, there’s just no way to tell if you found them all,” he said. Someone shooting from inside a car, for example, would not have left cases on the ground. In fact, the lone gun police have seized so far, a .380 automatic, was recovered from inside a car.

As police began to stream into the theater’s parking lot, officers spotted a car racing away from the scene and pursued it into Bridgeport, according to Deputy Chief Glenn Byrnes.

The car went off the road on Seltsam Road, and Bridgeport officers caught all three occupants. One of the suspects is 17 years old, and the other two are 15. All were charged with resisting an officer and were later released. Their names were withheld because they were youthful offenders under age 18 and shielded from disclosure by state law.

Two others, Abraham Davidson, 18, of 296 Park Street, and Eddie Vega, 19, of 19 Plymouth Street, were arrested at the theater. Davidson was charged with attempted first degree assault, criminal use of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, reckless endangerment and threatening. He was held on $100,000 bond for court Monday. Vega was charged with interfering with police.

Kiely said the relatively young ages of the suspects was sad, but not surprising.

“I think people could be shocked, but gangs start initiating members as young as 13,” he said.

Though police have not yet determined what instigated the incident, Kiely said the Trumbull police were working with the Bridgeport police’s gang task force.

“Their street intel is fantastic,” he said. Bridgeport police have been scanning the video from the theater’s security cameras in an attempt to identify any known gang members, he said.

First Selectman Ray Baldwin said he spoke with theater management Tuesday and that he, Kiely, Byrnes and theater officials would be meeting this morning to try to work out a plan to reassure patrons that the theater was safe. Baldwin said the plan would include police officers inside and outside the building and additional cameras in the lobby and parking areas.

Baldwin cited the Westfield mall as an example of a cooperative effort between police and a commercial enterprise.

“Police with the gang task forces walk the mall, identifying gang members,” Baldwin said. “There has been a great deal of cooperation between us and the mall.”

Baldwin and Kiely both stressed that the investigation was ongoing, and that anyone who witnessed the incident or may have information about the relationship between the groups of youths involved should call police at 203-261-3665.

“As time goes on, and we get a chance to talk to some of the teens that were involved, when they aren’t around the rest of the group, we should be able to generate some more information,” Kiely said.