BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — It was a deadly night in Bridgeport Monday, as police responded to five shootings in a span of approximately six hours. Two were killed, including an 18-year-old male.
Then, Tuesday morning at 10:45, Bridgeport Police were dispatched to another shooting on Dover Street.
"When officers got there they found a male gunshot victim, 32 years old, who was shot once in the leg on the porch of that house," said Bridgeport Police Captain Brian Fitzgerald.
Police believe the shooting was a result of a dispute between neighbors that ended with shots fired. The victim will survive. The suspect remains at large.
"Actually, our detectives are inside right now interviewing people that live in the house," said Fitzgerald. "So, we are trying to get to the bottom of that."
Just after 6 o’clock Monday night, within a couple of blocks of each other, there were two separate shootings, including along Fairfield Avenue, at Albion Street, where an 18-year-old male sustained a fatal gunshot to the head.
"I started crying then, and I said what happened, and then when they said the kid was 18, I was like that's a baby," said one resident.
An hour later, a 13-year-old girl was shot in the back and a 23 man in the leg. Both survived.
At this point, the information that we have been able to develop is that they were not related," said Fitzgerald, of three shootings in a span of an hour.
Four hours later, just after 11 pm, another deadly shooting. This one occurred at the corner of William and Putnam Streets. Police say a 53-year-old man was playing dominoes at a cookout when he was killed.
“From interviewing witnesses at the scene, it appears that our victim was sitting down at the side of 750 William Street and that a lone shooter walked up Putnam Street and shot him at point-blank range several times," said Fitzgerald.
There was a theme with the shootings that occurred before midnight.
"In three of the four shootings, we believe the victims were targeted," Fitzgerald said.
The violence ended for the night just after midnight with a male being shot roughly six blocks and six hours from the first two shootings. The victim, thankfully, will survive.
"We are putting more cops on the streets in areas where we know or that we reasonably believe that shootings could happen," Fitzgerald noted.
Among protesters recent demands in Bridgeport have been defunding police and requesting police get rid of shot spotter technology.
"We’ve had several incidents where shot spotter has saved peoples lives and we’ve known that because the police were able to quickly get on scene," Fitzgerald said.
All in all, seven people were shot in six shootings. Two of the victims died.