Crime down, but gang activity on the rise

In the late '80s and early '90s, the Dwight/Kensington neighborhood, which adjoins the Yale campus, was one of Connecticut's most violent neighborhoods. Residents lived in fear of the gunshots that rang out nightly in the historic area. The Kensington Street Incorporated (KSI), a powerful drug gang, controlled the area, and its battles with gangs from the Newhallville neighborhood like "theVille" helped to push New Haven's murder total to 34 in 1991.

FILE PHOTO The image of violent crime remains stubbornly connected to New Haven's public image even though the numbers of arrests and incidents has dropped dramatically in recent years.

In recent years, Dwight and Newhallville have been quiet, and by 1999, New Haven's murder total had fallen to 12. The KSI's role in the neighborhood diminished after many of its leaders were arrested and incarcerated following a successful police operation. After a string of shootings this summer, however, New Haven citizens, Yale students, and the police are struggling to find an explanation for the increased violence. The best answer seems to be a rekindling of the neighborhood rivalry of yesteryear.

During a 16-day span from Sat., July 21 to Wed., Aug. 8, 16 city residents were shot in 12 separate incidents. Five of these shootings occurred in the Dwight/Kensington area and two took place in the adjoining Edgewood neighborhood. Four occurred in the Hill neighborhood, which borders both Dwight/Kensington and Yale Medical School.

The incidents that hit closest to home for Yale students occurred during the early morning hours of Sat., Jul. 21, and Mon., Jul. 30. Calvin Streater, 18, was shot numerous times in the stomach in front of Alpha Delta Pizza (A[[Delta]]P) near the corner of Howe and Elm Streets—the closest shooting to the Yale campus since teenagers discharged a weapon at the corner of York and Chapel in 1998. Another shooting took place in the parking lot of Brick Oven Pizza, where an unknown man was struck.

James Tunick, ES '03, who spent the summer living next to A[[Delta]]P in an apartment above Zachary's Liquors, said, "My take is that there are three food places and a bar out here and things just boil over." Tunick added that he was not surprised by the shootings. "We hear gunshots quite often, almost every night, coming from within a couple of blocks," he said.

Extra police have been deployed in the area and stay on duty until the bars and restaurants close. These officers say that they will remain "until the money runs out." Local apartment owners are also deploying extra security.

Other areas of the Dwight/Kensington neighborhood have not been immune to the increased violence. On Sun., Jul. 29 and Mon., Jul. 30, there were two shootings in a span of two hours in the Kensington area. At 11:17 p.m., a man was hit by a bullet shot from a passing car on Kensington St. and at 1:13 a.m., a 16-year-old cyclist was struck in the leg during a similar incident.

For neighborhood residents who are not affiliated with Yale, the resurgence in violence has brought back painful memories of the area before the improvements of the last decade. Since the KSI's downfall, the Greater Dwight Development Corporation brought Shaw's supermarket and Hollywood Video to the neighborhood to create a bustling shopping area and Dwight Elementary school underwent extensive renovations. The Community Builders also turned around the troubled Kensington Square housing area.

Yet the recent shootings have left many wondering if a return to the past is at hand. Alice Ashe, a resident of Day Street in Dwight, told the New Haven Register "It's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still a scary place."

Data suggests that the increased rate of violent activity could merely be the result of a leveling out of the Clinton-era plunges of crime rates in many large cities. Hartford, which had previously experienced a drop in crime, saw a 10 percent rise last year. During 2000, New Haven avoided this increase, with crime falling 21 percent. Could it be that the city is simply falling in line with broader national trends?

Unfortunately, there seems to be a neighborhood gang rivalry lurking behind the numbers. Many observers, including local gang experts and police stationed in the Howe/Elm area, believe that the nature of the shootings suggests gang activity is enjoying a resurgence in Dwight/Kensington. In July, it appeared that intra-gang rivalries within Dwight led to the shootings. An NHPD detective said at the time that Newhallville was quiet, which indicated that the inter-gang rivalry had not heated up.

Now the story seems to be more complex. Two shootings this week have led local officials and the media to believe that a rekindling of the Newhallville/Dwight neighborhood rivalry could be at the source of the shootings. Seventeen-year-old Rashad Williams of Newhall Street was shot in the back on Sun., Sept. 2 while attending a backyard barbecue at the Thomas E. Holmes estates, a new model housing development in Newhallville. On Mon., Sept. 3, another man claimed that he was shot at a park at the intersection of Goffe Street and Sherman Avenue, an area very close to Newhallville.

In a recent interview, Mayor John DeStefano admitted that he is concerned about the resurgence of the neighborhood gang tensions. "There is a dynamic going on right now between Newhallville and Dwight," he said. "The [alleged most recent] shooter, a 16-year-old, was arrested recently. There's too much access to guns on the streets. As a city, state, and nation, we have to address the availability of guns on the streets. There is a challenge also to the faith community and the parents. It is not something City Hall can handle alone."

A group called the Judicial Marshall Intelligence Unit is investigating the possibility that a renewed gang rivalry is occurring. While details are still uncertain, the Southeastern Connecticut Gang Activities Group believes that a group of incarcerated KSI members reorganized as a group called the TRÉ may be behind the violence.

Interestingly, local police have kept relatively quiet on the issue. Earlier this summer, NHPD Chief Melvin Wearing ordered supervisors to cut down on the amount of information released to the press.

At a press conference, NHPD Head Detective Bryan Norwood merely said that the department is "investigating the possibility" that the shootings are related.

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