STAMFORD-Residents can learn how to administer the opiate antidote Narcan at a training session at Government Center in Stamford on Thursday at noon.
The session is being held by Communities 4 Action and Silver Hill Hospital. Communities 4 Action promotes substance-abuse prevention and mental health services in the region.
The session will be attended by Mayor David Martin and Director of Public Safety Ted Jankowski in the Government Center lobby.
With the opioid epidemic raging in Connecticut, Stamford police officers in July were given Narcan for the first time to carry with them while on duty. The move took place after reports of overdoses in Stamford spiked to 32 calls in June.
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Narcan training session set for noon Thursday at Gov. Center in Stamford
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Massachusetts inmate extradite to Stamford to face burglary charges
STAMFORD-A former Stratford man just released from jail in Massachusetts was extradited to Stamford where he will be arraigned today for allegedly posing as a utilities worker and walking into a city business where he stole credit cards from several employees, police said.
Edward Alexander, 52, is being charged with three counts of third-degree burglary, a dozen counts of identity theft, third-degree larceny and 21 counts of credit card theft.
Lt. Tom Barcello said that Alexander is a career criminal with other arrests and convictions on his record.
Barcello said that on January 30, 2012 Alexander posed as a CL&P worker and got into the Pitney Bowes office in Stamford and stole credit cards from several employees there.
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Woman charged with harassing Stamford ex-boyfriend over 300 times
STAMFORD-City police have arrested a New York woman and charged her with violating a judge’s protective order prohibiting her from contacting her former Stamford boyfriend 334 times over the past few months.
Lt. Tom Barcello said the man originally complained to police in May that his ex-girlfriend Kristina Marie Hogan, 32, of Summerville Place in Yonkers had contacted her about 150 times against a judge’s order.
During the police investigation of the allegation, it was determined she called and texted the man a total of 334 times after the judge told her not to, Barcello said.
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Stamford man confesses to selling heroin city man took before dying
STAMFORD-The 65-year-old Stamford man who police say confessed to selling the heroin to a man less than half his age who died in July after taking the drug is being held in lieu of a $100,000 cash bond.
On Tuesday, James Pipicelli, 65, of West Main Street, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and sale of narcotics following the death of 28-year-old Daniel Peretz. Peretz’s body was discovered after his ex-girlfriend went to his Towne Street apartment at midnight on July 14 because they were supposed to meet up during the day, but he did not show.
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New training for lifeguards at Chelsea Piers after near drowning
STAMFORD-Less than a month after a five-year-old New Canaan boy nearly drowned at Chelsea Piers in Stamford, the company has announced the hiring of an independent company to review its poolside safety procedures. According to an announcement to its members, on Friday when it closes its pools for yearly maintenance an international aquatic safety and consulting firm will be on site to begin training life guards and managers. The near drowning happened Aug. 3 at about 12:30 p.m. when a lifeguard noticed that a child was underwater. Police viewed the video and said the boy was underwater for nearly four minutes before he was pulled out and given lifesaving treatment.
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Stamford man eats receipt after counterfeit bill arrest
STAMFORD- booked for possession of 20 phony bills did not slake one Stamford man’s appetite for trouble.
Police say that Eugene Lyles, 56, turned uncooperative and tampered with evidence after being brought back to police headquarters for allegedly trying pass counterfeit bills at Ridgeway Shopping Center on Wednesday afternoon.
Along with the bills, police also found a receipt from Michaels that appeared to have been given to Lyles after he passed a phony bill for a small purchase at the arts and crafts store.
But once in the booking area of police headquarters Lyles reached over the counter he was standing next to and grabbed the receipt and shoved it in his mouth before eating it, police said.
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“Vicious” fight with gunman outside Stamford train station
STAMFORD-A man with a gun put up a terrific fight while he was being apprehended at the Stamford train station early Thursday afternoon.
“He put up a vicious fight as he was being taken into custody and he had a gun, but none of our guys were badly hurt,” Capt. Richard Conklin said. No shots were fired during the takedown.
The incident involving the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad occurred just a little before 1:30 p.m. outside the Stamford train station.
Conklin said he was still gathering information on the arrest and would be providing more details later in the afternoon.
jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
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Norwalk man sentenced to seven years for shooting
STAMFORD — A Norwalk man who was 16 when he was convicted of shooting another teen in the chest in 2013 was sentenced to 90 months in prison on Thursday.
Darnell “Pookie” Brown, 20, was given a 15-year sentence suspended after seven and one-half years at the Stamford courthouse after pleading guilty to a charge of first-degree assault at the Stamford courthouse earlier this year. He will remain on probation for five years after serving the sentence, which is due to run out in 2020.
Brown was arrested right after the shooting in April 2013 after he and another man got into a scuffle with a group of men near Caribbean Grocery on West Cedar Street in South Norwalk.
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Park and beach crackdown continues in Stamford
STAMFORD — In what is becoming a semi-regular crackdown on misbehavior at city parks and beaches, police on Thursday wrote over 40 summonses for a variety of violations.
The crackdown began a Cummings Beach shortly before 5 p.m. with several police officers and parks police.
The “quality of life detail” as police call it, resulted in 20 tickets being issued for motor vehicle infractions, most notably failure to grant the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
The effort follows a similar crackdown at Cummings Beach that occurred on July 30 when police spent six hours in the park and wrote 38 tickets.
At that time police Lt.
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Son calls cops on parents, but he gets charged
STAMFORD — What started with a police call about son upset with his parents for allegedly stealing his bullets, ended with the young man being arrested for being illegally possessing a pistol.
Police were called to Camp Avenue just before noon on Thursday after receiving a call about a domestic upset.
When they got there they were told that the parents of Andre Lecky, 20, found some bullets in his bedroom some time ago, but that on Thursday he became upset and demanded them back. After a little pushing and shoving police were called.
Police asked Lecky if he had a gun and replied that he did, but would not show them were it was. “Let the dog find it,” he said, a police report of the incident reported.
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Massachusetts man accused of cashing bogus checks in Stamford
STAMFORD — A Massachusetts man was extradited to Stamford Thursday to face charges that he helped steal $54,000 from the bank account of a Stamford marble company.
Salesman Joel Sanchez, 29, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was charged with second-degree larceny and two counts of forgery for allegedly cashing two checks from the Stamford company worth $12,800, his three-page arrest warrant said.
After being brought to Stamford, the single father of three posted a $15,000 court appearance bond and was released.
In early January, police received a complaint from the owner Fordham Marble Company on Fairfield Avenue that nine checks worth $61,000 had been cashed on Dec. 22, 2016 from the company’s business account.
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Stamford stands in solidarity with Houston
STAMFORD — Mayor David Martin was today joined by Stamford-based Americares and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to highlight the best ways for Stamford residents to help the City of Houston, TX and the victims of Hurricane Harvey. The hurricane made initial landfall last Friday, and has produced 51 inches of rain in some areas, destroying some 48,000 homes. “The pictures and videos coming out of Texas and Louisiana get worse and worse every day, showing unthinkable devastation,” Martin said. “We in Stamford have not been immune to floods and storms over the years, so I appreciate that residents are looking for ways to help those who have been affected.
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State Police to increase patrols for holiday weekend
State Police will monitor Connecticut’s roads for drunk driving, speeding, seat-belt violations and distracted driving over Labor Day weekend. Troopers will use traditional and nontraditional state police vehicles to search for reckless and intoxicated drivers through Monday. They will staff sobriety checkpoints, increase roving patrols and use the State Police Breath Alcohol Testing Mobile Unit, according to a news release. Police officials are encouraging drivers to stay safe. Police said more than 35 million drivers are expected to travel across the country this weekend.
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Angela Carella: Stamford mulling its options in Big Pharma suits
STAMFORD - Waterbury has sued several pharmaceutical companies that make the opioids that have triggered the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history, and Bridgeport soon will join the suit. But officials in Stamford, home to Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the top-selling opioid OxyContin, did not take part Thursday in a press conference that followed the court filing in Waterbury. Five Connecticut towns -- New Milford, Oxford, Bristol, Naugatuck, Wolcott and Roxbury -- pledged to sign on, and another 15 to 20 likely will follow, Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary said. They include Norwalk and Darien.
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Driver in Newfield crash busted for heroin in Stamford
STAMFORD-The city man who caused a big accident at the start of last week that forced the closure of northern Newfield Avenue for nearly a day, was busted three days later with 115 bags of heroin stamped “Sleepwalker”, police said.
Police say that Monday August 28 at about 11 p.m. Nue Perdedaj, 29, of Seaside Avenue, was traveling south on Newfield near Sterling Farms when he lost control of his vehicle and spun out, striking a power pole and dislodging it at its base. With wires all over the roadway it took until the following night to get the busy road open again.
Police spotted two empty bottles of Oxycodone in his car and suspected he was high when he got into the accident.
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Cops tell Stamford residents to lock doors ward off burglars
STAMFORD-Police are warning residents, especially those in North Stamford, to lock their doors and turn on their burglar alarms as the area is being hit with a wave of break-ins.
“We are certainly seeing a rise in burglaries in North Stamford over the past several weeks,” said Capt. Richard Conklin, who supervises the property crimes and major crime units in the department. “It’s not just in Stamford it is now a regional problem where we have seen quite a large increase in burglaries.”
Conklin said large homes set back from others in wooded are being targeted by the thieves. In many cases doors and garages have been left unlocked or burglar alarms left off, helping the perpetrators get away without arrest.
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Norwalk man pleads to reduced charges in Christmas knife attack
STAMFORD — A Norwalk man will receive a reduced sentence of four years in jail after pleading guilty this week for his role in a Christmas party knife attack in 2014.
Nelson Zuniga Zelaya, 34, of Knapp Street, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of accessory to second-degree assault.
Zuniga Zelaya was arrested on an outstanding warrant last November when he was pulled over for drunken driving, police said. The warrant was for kidnapping and first-degree assault and he has been held in lieu of $500,000 court appearance bond.
Zuniga Zelaya’s attorney, Howard Ehring, said one of the victims has been deported for committing an unrelated assault and the other has been reluctant to testify.
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Stamford man charged with smashing beer bottle over woman’s head
STAMFORD — A Stamford man in federal prison on drug offenses faces new charges for bashing a woman over the head with a beer bottle, police said.
The charges stem from a July 24 incident when a 45-year-old woman was slashed on the West Side, Sgt. Sean McGowan said. The woman had a laceration about eight inches long and an inch and a half wide near her left ear, McGowan said.
The woman said a man came up to her and struck her with a bottle while she was drinking in a park on Southfield Drive, McGowan said.
McGowan said security video footage in the area showed the incident and investigators recognized the suspect as Lance Rhodes, 29, of Montauk Drive.
jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
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Stamford man charged with damaging ex’s car
STAMFORD — A city man has been accused of smashing his former girlfriend’s car with a recycling bin and calling her names.
Sgt. Sean McGowan said police were called to the Ridgeway neighborhood after a woman spotted her daughter’s ex-fiance damaging her car about 1 a.m. July 26. The man was also screaming for his former lover to come outside and called her a whore, McGowan said.
The woman called her ex-fiance and he promised to pay the $700 to repair her Mercedes-Benz, McGowan said.
Jose Olivera-Lopez, 27, of Lockwood Avenue, has been charged with breach of peace, criminal mischief, criminal violation of a restraining order and second-degree harassment.
jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
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Teen accused of Stamford commercial burglaries
STAMFORD — A teen wanted for a series of commercial burglaries was apprehended after he was brutally beaten with brass knuckles outside a West Side party Thursday night, police said.
Capt. Richard Conklin said police responded to a report of a fight and found Chance Perrone, 18, on Fairfield Avenue bleeding from the head.
“He was bleeding profusely from his forehead,” Conklin said. “He was semiconscious and a friend was holding a towel to his head.”
Perrone told police he was at a party when someone called him outside and he was attacked with a pair of brass knuckles, Conklin said. Perrone refused to “rat” out the person who assaulted him, Conklin said.
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