February 3, 2010 9:26 pm

Norwalk Police Investigating Homicide

The results of this morning’s police investigation into the death of a man found behind the former Nathaniel Ely school revealed new details. The man is identified as Karl Savage, age 30. Savage had a criminal record, including convictions for robberies, firearms violations and drug charges. Connecticut Department of Corrections records state that he was released from Northern Correctional Institution in November 2009.�Savage was shot several times in what the police believe was an incident that occurred in the evening or overnight hours. According to the police invetigating the scene, Savage was shot several times.

Forensic evidence has been recovered from the scene is being be sent to the state forensic laboratory in Farmington for examination. The autopsy is scheduled for Thursday morning.

Savage was discovered by a custodian shortly before 9 AM on the sidewalk near the northwest corner of the former elementary school. This location borders the Roodner Court housing complex at 261 Ely Avenue.�The former elementary school is now utilized by NEON Child Development, a pre-school program for children ages 15 months to 5 years old. The Nathaniel Ely facility provides education for 275 children with 60-70 staff members. At no time was the building or its occupants in any danger.

The police are urging anyone with any information regarding this incident to contact them.

Anyone with information is urged to contact police via:

Norwalk Police Tipline at 203-854-3111

Anonymous Internet tips can be sent to Norwalk Police website at: www.norwalkpd.com,

Anonymous text tips can be submitted by typing “NPD” into the text field, followed by the message, and sending it to CRIMES (274637).

What works?

A public housing project in an urban city experinced an explosion of violence when crack became available. Patrols were increased arrests skyrocketed but the violence continued to escualate. When a 13 year old g,irl was raped on the side of a convienience store next to the complex just steps from her home residents reacted. they stormed city hall and demanded immediate action. The housing authority erected a fence around the complex. The fence was cut to shreds by the dealers working in the complex. The authority replaced the fencing and topped it with razor wire and built a guard shack at the entrance and hired a security company to man the shack. The fence continued to get cut and the guard was shot and killed. Twelve foot walls topped with razor wire and electronic key card vehicle entry with cameras on the sole entry exit finally provided relief to the residents trapped there. Ultimately the area came back after the authority privatized the complex and allowed the residents to purchase their units. Now the entire neighborhood is rebounding. Boared up buildings are turning into maticulasly manicured landscapes of multi family condos and parks and schools where liquor stores and bars stood and narcotics dealers and sex slaves once plied their toxins. If you give people a fair share and a reason they respond resoundingly. When did we stop believing in ourselves and eachother?
What works?

A public housing project in an urban city experinced an explosion of violence when crack became available. Patrols were increased arrests skyrocketed but the violence continued to escualate. When a 13 year old g,irl was raped on the side of a convienience store next to the complex just steps from her home residents reacted. they stormed city hall and demanded immediate action. The housing authority erected a fence around the complex. The fence was cut to shreds by the dealers working in the complex. The authority replaced the fencing and topped it with razor wire and built a guard shack at the entrance and hired a security company to man the shack. The fence continued to get cut and the guard was shot and killed. Twelve foot walls topped with razor wire and electronic key card vehicle entry with cameras on the sole entry exit finally provided relief to the residents trapped there. Ultimately the area came back after the authority privatized the complex and allowed the residents to purchase their units. Now the entire neighborhood is rebounding. Boared up buildings are turning into maticulasly manicured landscapes of multi family condos and parks and schools where liquor stores and bars stood and narcotics dealers and sex slaves once plied their toxins. If you give people a fair share and a reason they respond resoundingly. When did we stop believing in ourselves and eachother?
OLD TIMER

He’s right, you know. In Norwalk we have a perfect example. Roodner Court and most of the other projects in Town have been hot spots for many years for all kinds of crime, most done by “visitors” who don’t live there, but visit to exploit the traffic generated by such dense housing. The exception is Town House Gardens which was built with government money, but never occupied as subsidized housing, where government money helps pay the rent. From the start, units at Town house were sold to owners who would live there and has never been any kind of a hot spot. Ownership gives residents a different attitude and they are very protective of their little neighborhood. Hang around there where you don’t belong and you wil be asked to leave, sometimes by a resident, sometimes by a cop called by a resident. It is much more like an old fashioned neighborhood where everybody has an interest in preserving property value and looking out for their neighbors. The City would do well to look into converting Roodner court to owner occupied condos, where trespassing laws could be enforced. There was a time when the housing authority hired off-duty cops to patrol at Roodner Court, on foot, a few nights a week. The cops who worked the job made friends and developed trust relationships that got them a lot of information not available to other officers.
Secondhand Rose

Wasn’t there some talk about converting Washington Village into owner-occupied housing? Seems to me I remember that nobody living there wanted that to take place. Of course, when you transform subsidized housing to owner-occupied housing, then the former subsidized tenants are forced to become responsible owners….
Barnstorm

I’d be interested to know why the police took so long to declare this incident a homicide. The guy was dead for a while, with multiple bullet holes in him, yet they waited for the autopsy report to say he was murdered. Do they also wait for a memo to be released that says the sun came up yesterday?
Observer

I would have thought that the determination of “homicide” was obvious from the get-go; Norwalk hardly needs someone to inform them of that fact. 99% of the time when people are shot and killed, it’s a homicide, not a suicide. The autopsy report was most likely just a formality.

I don’t see the point in jumping down the NPD’s throat simply because they wanted to cover all the bases before annoucing the fact. In today’s atmosphere the NPD are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, what with all the armchair criminologists out there who think they know so much more than the cops do. Funny how none of them are apparently capable of getting hired by the NPD or they wouldn’t be hiding behind computer keyboards making comments in newspaper forums; they’d be out there solving the crimes they seem to think only they know how to solve while proving their superior knowledge.
OLD TIMER

It is a legal technicality. The police treat it as a homicide right from the start, based on the crime scene, but only an autopsy can legally determine the cause of death. They always wait for autopsy results before they officially call anything a homicide unless they have eye witnesses, or a confession.
Third Firearm Victim for 2010

Looks like we may have the citys second homcide this evening from a shooting in W.V. this will make the third violent shooting in our town in what a month?
Going to get hot in the chiefs office in the morning.

Apathetic Voter

Oh, and of course it’s all his fault. His, and the mayor’s. Don’t forget to mention that. /eye roll/

OLD TIMER

CT POST has story about 17 yr old (no name given) shot last night at Washington Village. Article speculates about any connection with Savages’s murder. Victim survived, but is not coopereating with investigation.
Thug-on-thug violence, who cares?

Criminals shooting other criminals is hardly what I consider to be ‘news’. Or anything to worry about, unless I live in their neighborhood. For the majority of Norwalkers, if you stay out of high-crime areas, nothing is going to happen to you. If there are people who are “afraid”, then they shouldn’t put themselves into situations in which they will appear to be at risk. In other words, stay out of the high-crime areas! For cryin out loud, people – you know what you have to do to protect yourself from becoming a crime victim. Just do it and get on with your life, and quit the whining. Or man up and join the police force and do something about it. But shut up already, because the bulk of Norwalk A) doesn’t care about these high-crime areas, B) is more than sick of hearing about it. And we really don’t care what the “frightened” people think, because if the tiny bit of crime in Norwalk is scaring them, then they should hurry up and barricade their windows and doors, because they’re far too intimidated by phantoms to even go outside their heavily fortified homes to collect their mail. Grow some balls, people.
OLD TIMER

“Thug on thug violence, who cares ?”
Now there is a real community-minded attitude.
Why not just let all the bad guys take the law into their own hands and shoot at each other anytime they feel like it. Why not just ignore the laws, designed to keep our communities safe, and let them play by their own rules, while the rest of us try to stay out of the way ? Why not just assume that folks who live in low income neighborhoods are not deserving of the same protections under the law the rest of us take for granted ? Why, indeed ? Anybody ?