Stray Bullet Breaks Police Department Window

Tuesday evening, a crowd of people gathered in front of the Norwalk Police station on South Main street were the target of a single shooter. The individual fired errantly at a member of the group, according to Lt. Paul Resnick. The bullet ricocheted and hit a window on the first floor of the police building that fronted the Police Department’s community room.

The entire incident was captured on surveillance video, and while not disclosing an imminent arrest, the Police are confident that they will apprehend the shooter. They are currently capturing and analyzing the forensic evidence at the scene, including the bullet wedged inside the community room.

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  • Persona non grata

    There is no way, no how those knuckles down there at Police headquarters can figure out who did this. I’m sorry, but I have no confidence in them. Thank goodness no one was injured!!

  • Evan

    I have confidence in them. Regardless of the community perception they still took a job that puts them in harms way in order to keep us safe. That demands some level of respect doesn’t it? Sometimes even I forget that. As long as there’s people running around shooting guns off in the middle of sono it’s comforting that there are people that aren’t me tracking them down.

  • Duck and Cover

    Norwalk, is moving forward or, is it backward? those catchy political phrases are always so confusing. We sure are giving a whole new meaning to “duck and cover”. Is headquarters a designated air raid shelter? Evan, its agreed we have definetly have to show respect. However, it is also true if the fox continues raiding the hen house, maybe, its time to think about getting another dog that will get off the porch and keep the fox away.

    • evan

      A lot of people complain about chief rilling. Is he really the source of the problem? Is it a political thing? Can any amount of police work actually improve the situation? There are dangerous criminals everywhere. What makes norwalk so much more dangerous? What would have to change to make the city happy? They sound like simple questions until I try to answer them. There are so many complaints but where does a citizen even start to help solve the problem?

  • OLD TIMER

    Chief Rilling is not the source of the problem. The people who get arrested over and over and keep getting back out on the street are. He is a bright guy who came up through the ranks and does the best he can with the resources he has. Many of us are disturbed by any amount of crime and long for the days when Norwalk was a smaller town and the police were Norwalk natives we knew personally as neighbors and classmates in school. We knew them by their first names and there were a lot of them walking beats in the downtown neighborhoods every day, and night.(24/7) Those walking patrol officers knew everyone who belonged, and who did not. As Norwalk has grown, and we have come to rely on the police to come running every time anyone calls, wether for a gunshot felony in progress, or a neighbor’s too loud party, we have not increased the numbers on the dept. in proportion to the number of calls or the number of people living or working here. We have not increased the police salaries to a level that allows comfortable local home ownership and more and more officers grew up and now live some distance away, and need GPS units to find some local addresses. We no longer enjoy the familiarity we used to. Their job has gotten more difficult, the pay has increased, but probably not enough, and we, and they, have a sense there are not enough of them and they do not regularly do many things we used to count on. A lot of bad guys used to first get caught in traffic violations. There are more police cars and no walking beats. Fewer of us know anyone on the dept. we can confidently call with information, sometimes tips, sometimes complaints, but always where we want guaranteed anonymity.
    Rilling could do a lot more with more people. The dept budget is about 7 cents of your tax dollar now. We would be much more secure, if we raised that to about 10 cents. Most of us would complain bitterly about another 3 cents added to every dollar we now pay in City taxes and all the politicians know that. Until that happens, Chief Rilling will try hard, but results will not change much. Eventually, he will retire and a new chief will face the same challenges with not enough support. Will the new chief do as well, or better, or worse ?

  • Crackerjack

    If you enjoy being easily amused this afternoon, why not mosey on over to our esteemed newspaper’s website and get an eyeful of the local freakazoids feverishly anticipating Norwalk’s imminent doomsday. If it wasn’t so pathetic, it would actually be a bit of entertaining reading. Instead, it’s merely the usual drivel, and unfortunately all it does is leave one shaking one’s head at the unbelievable stupidity of the people involved.

  • Mrs. G.

    Don’t think anyone is attacking Rillings character, well maybe a couple but the issue clearly is command and control.

    In the business world we call it management.

    Everyone could use more resources, that goes without saying and undoubtedly we will get through this and better days will come. But for the here and now, its a challenge to put a good spin on anything connected with the dept.

    The true issue here is competence and managment expertise, both are in short supply in many administrations. Some have commented that all these top earning admistrators should have it in their contracts to have skin in the game, ie, live here.

    The cry is affordability, can that be really a serious arguement for top admistrators? An entry level cop gets 42,000 starting, excluding overtime and side work at construction sites and businesses. Average per capita on the new census will probably be, news flash, around 50, for two incomes.

    Yes its expensive to live here, but there are other places far more expensive, skin in the game makes a difference. If you go home to Weston at night, your not concerned about a home invasion or getting robbed at your mail box.

    Rilling has been here a good long time and yes he is responsive, even if it appears, reluctantly. There is just simply some unacceptable, very, sloppy work getting done or in most cases not getting done, which exacerbates concerns as the files start stacking up.

    There is a limit to manpower and resources and that is exactly why Rilling has to take the heat. He is ultimately the guy to hold accountable. Did he not, just announce the two new recruits would bring us up to full strength? Yet the argument is, not enough manpower?

    We keep buying all these toys, mind you mostly through grants and siezures, credit due where credit earned, however the toys do little to reduce crime, deter crime or even simply be an aid in investigations and proscuections.

    What we have here is a sheriff possee structure. Professional department standard policies are not implemented, the files continue to stack up higher and higher.

    So busy as a matter of fact took the department 2 hours to respond to a call of a man braking down a womans door. TWO HOURS. Granted there was an active shooting scene underway, but we left this lady alone for two hours, even after numerous calls by her for help.

    To the numbercrunchers, is that not a huge liabilty to the city?

    If she was hurt or killed?

    No Harry’s a good cop, look he caught, well, almost caught a shoplifter stealing food, all by himself.

    We need a chief that is well trained in police urban tactics and community outreach. Neither of those critical policies have been professionally implemented.

    So if we stick with Harry we need to send him back to school. But, he is eligible to retire, so sending Harry for training is feasible?

    Under his command we have been repeatedly, humilated, if he wasn’t a nice guy would we have stood this long in his corner? Comes a time, at the end of the day, when we have to face realities.

    Lets see if we can do this with some degree of tact, professionalisim and foresight. Let’s enlist Harry to help us find his replacement and help him make a graceful exit. He has put his time in and we do owe him just due, he and the department derserve no less.

    It is beyond obvious the house is in disarray, lets hope we can all be of help to our department to get it back on its feet and than we can do it rapidly.

  • Oh for pete’s sake

    The so-called “crime wave” is taking place in South Norwalk, a not-at-all-unexpected area for it to take place in. This has been a high-crime area for GENERATIONS. And it’s certain ethnicities preying on others of the same ethnicity, in an area of town which fosters such preying-upon. It’s happening to the same people it always happens to. It’s way beyond time for people to get a grip and stop the knee-jerk hysteria.

  • OLD TIMER

    Chief Rilling has the schooling. Has a couple of degrees, including a masters in public administration. I stand by my prior comment.
    That is not to say that the next chief absolutely cannot possibly do any better, with the same resources, but it is unlikely.
    I don’t believe the dept is up to full authorized manpower, and won’t be when the two new people are on the street. People who know nothing about police work are making decisions on staffing levels, based on criteria other than dept. effectiveness. Some bean counter figured out it saves money to stay below authorized strength and hire, at overtime pay rates, to make up some, but not all, of the shortfall. This has been going on for many years, through several administrations. Community officers are a step in the right direction, to re-establish the relationship residents used to have with walking beat cops, but the committment to community policing is minimal and there are nowhere near enough officers in that program to make much difference.

    • dinner n discussion

      Degrees in what? Public administration, ok thats good. Wish we had that for all top city adminstrators, even a few would help. However, has the chief been through the school down in Va. Think its a little organization commonly refered to as the F.B.I. acadamy. Wait didnt our brand new asst chief retire and head on down to the academy? Maybe she could be a resource for her former boss. What can be spun but doesnt jive is that Harry has his act together. Have to strongly, diagree, here. Won’t address the moral issues, nor the morale issues, which should have been covered somewhere in a P.A. program. No, lets just focus on professionlisim. For obvious reasons much can not be shared on/in a public forum. But there are substatntial shortcomings in basic police practices. Without providing details which would compromise confidentiality and tip off the bad guys, we can look at the headlines. No seceret now, can’t whitewash or wish it away. Its going to take persistence and determination and not just from the dept but in collaboration with all agencies departments and N.G.O.s Perhaps this is where the Mayor can take the lead and put together a coalition of all depatment head reps and community leaders and begin the dialog. Everyone knows its bad and everyone wants it to get better and there is an enormus untapped resource out here that we are ignoring. John and Jane Doe and their children, the residents who actually live here. If our Mayor is as politically astute as he tries to appear, than he would immediately create a task force for Norwalks recovery. Get people involved and talking. Something called leading. Which is really what the job is about, not cutting ribbons, which our mayor must be setting a record on, by the way, for the Mayor of Norwalk with the least ribbon cuts. Geesh they are so desperate they are out at quickly painted and jerry rigged signs declaring this or that new project. Did ya catch them at N.C.T.C. digging manure with gold shovels, INSIDE. What about the big ballou about the train bridge, that still isn’t opened. We simply just dont have leadership in government.

      Its completely stuck on self promotion and enormus greed. Elizabeth Warren stated, publically, yesterday that she is frightened by what she sees.
      This is the straight shooter that Obama appointed to get the truth. He created the Congesional Oversight Panel and she didnt have a clue going in, she opened that pandoras box and she is actually, truely frightened at what she sees. The greed the incompetence, the corruption. What is wrong with our government? Well we have are folks that cant make it in the private sector and we have folks that are blinded by greed, fame and power.
      Bloomberg spent 40 million last election for a job that he accepts 1 dollar a year for. He says he does it because he loves it. Loves what, who?
      Linda McMahon no education, never even voted, PUBLICALLY states she is going to buy herself a congerssional seat. Why?

      Mayor Moccia, why did you want to become and remain our Mayor? What did you set out to accomplish? You can make a difference. That mentoring program is an excellent example of what you can do. Cmon Harry , cmon Richard, we may be critical of performance, that doesnt mean we don’t support you.Time’s call for BOLD action. We dont need angels from afar, Norwalk has plenty of hometown angels. We can make it better, right here, in Norwalk, right now with what we have.
      What are we waiting for?

  • OLD TIMER

    I think he is also a graduate of the FBI academy at Quantico. Harry is not the source of the problem. The guys that keep getting caught and turned loose are the problem. It will be interesting to see if the time ever comes that we committ to giving a police chief, this one or another, the resources to really get the job done. That will require devoting a certain amount to pro-active crime prevention, instead of devoting everything to reacting, after the fact.

  • John carvel

    I have lived here since the early eighties and seem to recall that the. City was in much worse shape in the eighties and early nineties with a lot more shootings and murders than there is now. I remember people being shot around Grove St., Ely Av., and Academy St. Almost every week. It doesn’t seem that bad now. Someone must have the murder statistics from back then to compare to the current numbers.

  • Secondhand Rose

    I was down on Washington Street Friday night for dinner at Acapulco between 6-8pm. Then we went over to Black Bear for a couple more hours. My friends and I were in SoNo until well after midnight, and nothing bad happened to us. We go down to SoNo EVERY Friday night and have never had a problem. We park by the Brewhouse (if we can get a space) and walk thru the alley next to the Norwalk Museum and walk up and down Washington St. and North Main St. (depending on where we decide to have dinner) throughout the evening. And we’ve been doing this on a regular basis since 2001. I honestly can’t understand people who say they are “afraid” to go to SoNo or who make really ridiculous remarks like “hurried to make it home by dusk to shut myself up my house until morning”. We’ve all been going to SoNo for years and have never had one single problem with anybody, anywhere.

  • NorwalkSpectator

    As for having “skin in the game”, Chief Rilling does live in Norwalk and not all that long ago, confronted a perp who was shoplifting at Stop N’ Shop on Connecticut Avenue. While the perp did get away, Chief Rilling did recover the “goods”.

  • OLD TIMER

    Part of the problem is department heads, including the chief , are not allowed to make the case in public, for the support they need. Chief Rilling could easily make an excellent case for more officers. The school superintendent is the only department head allowed to do that. All the others meet privately and gets marching orders for budget proposals to bring up in public. Mayors have enormous control, when dept heads are appointed. Remember when Mike Geake was on the public safety committee and very supportive of the police, he stated here that certain expected requests were never made, and, therefore never discussed by his committee, or brought forward in budget discussion ?
    People who know nothing about police work, but have political experience, or accounting skills, decide what department heads may ask for.
    When money becomes available, from other sources, like federal grants or criminal assets forfeiture, instead of local taxes, only then are they allowed to make other proposals. Grants and asset forfeiture money is limited in how it can be used. One of the limits is, it can’t be used to hire more officers, but it can be used for new equipment or overtime.