NEW HAVEN — A city police officer and a robbery suspect exchanged gunfire late Saturday in the midst of a chase that ended with two New Haven men in custody, police said.
An officer assigned to Club Vandome, 102 Hamilton St., was alerted to an armed robbery in the area shortly before midnight, according to police. Police said two victims told the officer they were robbed by two men armed with handguns. The victims told police the alleged perpetrators had ran down Hamilton Street toward Grand Avenue.
Police said the officer from the club pursued the suspects and saw them run from Grand Avenue to a Volvo station wagon parked on Wallace Street. The officer drew his gun and ordered the suspects to exit the car.
The driver of the Volvo drove into the officer’s car and the passenger got out, brandished a handgun and fired a single shot toward the officer, police said. The officer returned fire with a single shot, but neither the officer or the suspect was struck.
After the exchange of gunfire, the robbery suspect got back inside the car, which fled toward Walnut Street before crashing into a utility pole at the corner of Wallace and Walnut streets. One of the men inside the car was taken into custody as he fled from the crash and Yale University police arrested the second suspect in the area of Orange and Humphrey streets, police said.
The two victims from the earlier robbery identified the two men from the Volvo as those who had robbed them, police said. Officers located several items belonging to the victims, including two cell phones and a watch, which had been thrown from the Volvo, according to police. A gun was also recovered and a search is underway for a second gun.
Darryl Giles, 23, of Fitch Street, and Robert Staton, 22, of Sherman Avenue, are charged with first-degree robbery and attempted assault on a police officer.
Police are continuing to investigate the incident and are not identifying the officer involved at this time.