By Stacey Stowe, The New York Times
Hartford, Conn. -- Two Hartford police detectives were shot by a man with a shotgun during a drug raid here on Tuesday, and a suspect was then fatally wounded, the acting police chief said.
The detectives, whose injuries were not serious, had been executing a search warrant at a house a few blocks from Trinity College, Chief Mark Pawlina said. They are Nestor Caraballo, a 14-year veteran, and Jose Santiago, a 10-year veteran.
Chief Pawlina said that one of the detectives was shot in the chest, and the other in the face, arm and leg. He believed the first escaped serious injury thanks to his bulletproof vest.
The detectives were with other members of the department’s Vice Narcotics Division as they entered the house at 461 Zion Street at 5 p.m., Chief Pawlina said. They were then fired upon, and police officers shot back, wounding a man who was later pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital. Two other suspects, a man and a woman, were taken into custody by the Hartford police.
The police are withholding the names of all three. It was not clear whether the man who died was the one who shot the detectives.
Chief Pawlina was joined at the scene by the future police chief, Patrick J. Harnett, a retired New York City police official, whose hiring had been announced a few hours earlier. He is to take over in June.
Two hours after the shootings, dozens of uniformed officers and patrol cars roamed the streets around the three-story brick house, where residents were evacuated. Onlookers thronged the surrounding street corners and pressed against yellow tape that cordoned off an entire block, which is a brief walk from the Trinity campus.
It is the third time officers have been shot in Hartford in the past two years. A year ago, two officers were shot a block away from this house, neither fatally, Chief Pawlina said.
Indeed, gunfire is so prevalent here, parents describe practicing safety drills with their children.
“I tell my kids to hit the floor when they hear gunshots,” said Eddie Torruella, 38, who lives nearby, on Putnam Heights. His wife, Betty Toledo, said their children, who are 8 and 9, mistake the gunshots for fireworks. “And sometimes we just let them think that,” she said.