Top news stories in Connecticut for May 1, 2025 at 10 p.m.
FOX 61
[{'start': '0.009', 'end': '2.960', 'text': "Breaking news now on Fox 61, Connecticut's news station. We continue to follow the situation in Branford this evening where police say a person was killed and what police are investigating as a homicide. Thanks for joining us for the Fox 61 News at 10. I'm Brent Hardin. Police have released very few details to the public about this homicide at this point, but the neighborhood has been shut down for hours since we told you about this on the Fox 61 News at 5 and 6 p.m. Fox 61's Kay Pattyfoot is in Branford tonight, working to gather more details, and she'll have a report from the scene coming up later in the newscast. And we're also following breaking news from Enfield tonight where police are investigating a crash involving a motorcyclist. The crash happened about a half an hour ago along Town Farm Road. We don't have much else from police right now. We are working to get more details from investigators on scene, and we will update you on that accident if we hear anything else. We have an update now on a story we first brought you Wednesday. We've learned new details on the traffic safety plan set to go into effect along Hillside Avenue in Hartford. Families of students at McDonough Middle School told us they no longer let their students walk home because it's just not safe. They say drivers speed through the area and that sent at least 2 students to the hospital in April, and this has been a trend that has parents upset and demanding change. We have no signs. School zones, school areas, slow down, no speed bumps, no anything. A Change.org petition was launched to designate the area a school zone and make other changes to keep students safe. Now city leaders say those changes are on the way. Fox 61 Stefan Reel sat down with Hartford Mayor Arunan Arallampalam to get the details on the plan and find out why things have taken this long. Parents of students at McDonough Middle School tell me for years they've called on changes to keep their kids out of the hospital and keep them safe. Hartford Mayor Arunan Aulamalam told me that these changes have been in the works for months, but after two separate instances last month when kids were sent to the hospital, parents said those changes could not wait any longer. -- What does this plan really entail -- with these incidents? Coming right at McDonough school, we wanted to make sure that we can respond quickly and so in a matter of days we put together plans, specifically McDonough and Moylan. It'll include bump outs at the curb so that the distance across is a little closer and there's physical barriers protecting pedestrians who are crossing. It includes immediate striping so that visually you can see the lines better, cars can see the lines better. It includes some parking spaces so it narrows the road down to one lane in each direction. And our hope is that that slows people down and makes drivers slow down and makes it so that people can cross that street getting to school a lot easier. So is it going to be a school zone? Unfortunately that requires traffic studies which we have already started and been working on for months to put that school zone designation in place, but the school zone designation is to me it doesn't make quite as much of an impact as having the physical barriers to slow those cars down to make it easier to cross. And so we focused on trying. Make sure we can get those up right away once we learn about these incidents. Longer term traffic calming initiatives will continue on and that school zone designation as part of that will be put in that process. So how long is this all going to take? The school zones, I understand, will take longer, but how long until we see something really start to happen? It should be really immediate. We're moving all of our resources to addressing McDonough and Moylan School right now when it comes to traffic coming. And so in a matter of weeks, not months, in the next. A few weeks you should see some really significant traffic calm initiatives and some real slowing of cars. So there were some digital signs that were posted at both ends of Hillside Avenue in that school area. I had spoken with a couple of people. They felt like they were band-aids at best for the situation because when you were driving on the road, the glare on them, you could not see them half the time if you were driving head on. So some people are hesitant with all of these plants that are going forward. What do you want to say to people who are worried that this might just be another promise that may -- not be fulfilled -- to have kids in our neighborhoods in our community, to have parents in our community who are worried about crossing the road to get to school uh breaks my heart. We hear you. We are working very hard to make sure we can address those issues now and that you will see. Hopefully in weeks not months, that you will see change in the immediate weeks ahead. The Hartford mayor tells me that we could actually expect to see some of the changes we heard about earlier to happen in the coming week, and that really all depends on how soon they can get their in-house crews into the area of Hillside Avenue in Hartford, Stephan Reels, Fox 61. Hi Stefan, thank you. Back to that breaking news from Branford tonight where police are investigating a homicide. Fox 61's Kay Pattyfoot spoke with people living in that neighborhood who are shocked to hear what happened. Neighbors who live in the Hemlock area were shocked to see a huge police response to their corner of town. Early Thursday evening, Branford police reported there had been a homicide in this community. Neighbors tell me they knew something was up when they saw all the police SUVs in the area. One neighbor says it was his dogs that alerted him to what sounded like gunshots going off. -- We -- looked out there. I, I see like all these police cruisers out here. I said, wait a minute. This is more like it's been in the past. I mean, normally you see police cruisers like maybe 3 or 4 going the opposite direction, and there's been a couple out here before in the past, fairly recently. I think it was last year, but today was something else and then to find like a homicide mobile unit, it's like, you gotta be kidding me. -- It's very -- hor uh horrible what's, uh, what must have happened up there and, uh, we feel bad for the family and everything, but this is a. Very peaceful neighborhood. Everybody gets along. People are walking their dogs, walking kids. Kids are playing all the time. This is still an active scene and investigation. State police are also here as well. We'll provide updates as soon as we get them in Branford, Cape Pattyfoot, Fox 61. Thank you, Kay. A Fox 61 update. Now the state's inspector General Robert Devlin ruled today that a West Haven police officer was justified in shooting and killing a man two years ago. Fox 61's Tim Lammers had more on what was in that report. Devlin found the officer was justified in shooting because that man had shot another officer in the leg just seconds earlier and was still fighting to hold on to the gun after that. Now we do have 3 different police body cam videos of what happened, and while we won't show you the deadly gunshots, keep in mind it still might be hard for some of you to watch. The report was about the death of 30 three-year-old Javon Washington. It said back on the morning of December 1, 2023, West Haven police were called to an apartment on 296 Terrace Avenue for a domestic violence complaint. Officers decided to arrest Washington, and Officer Cody Bacon urged Washington to get dressed. All right, you want to grab some pants or something? Yeah. I just like some sweatpants, you know what I mean? 7 seconds later, Washington reaches for clothes in his closet, stops, briefly raises his hands, and then lunges for a gun under his bed, and in the ensuing struggle, a gunshot. That shot hit Officer Bacon in his left thigh. From Officer Bacon's body cam you can see the green laser sight on Washington's gun as Bacon put his hand on the gun slide as the two fought for control. That laser sight was pointed near a third officer, Alex Triscriti, who called for help and briefly took cover before firing 3 shots at Washington's chest. For the next 11 seconds Washington groaned in pain but didn't let go of the gun despite the officers repeatedly telling him to drop it. He eventually dropped the gun after a 4th gunshot to the chest. Washington could be heard saying, I'm dead over and over after that 4th shot. Although Officer Trisketti did perform CPR until firefighters arrived, Washington was pronounced dead at a hospital 42 minutes later. In the studio, I'm Tim Lammers, Fox 61. Well, new tonight, dozens of people in East Windsor joined together to rally against a repetition to expand an existing solar project in town. Fox 61's Valerie Morari spoke to locals about their efforts to fight the proposal. More than 50 people came out to East Windsor Town Hall Thursday night to protest against the petition gravel pitch solar submitted last April. Now organizers tell me they're not happy and enough is enough. No. Dozens of advocates took a stand in East Windsor against a petition to expand an additional 30 megawatt to the gravel pit solar energy project. Chris Dell has lived in East Windsor for more than 20 years, has been advocating against the existing project for 3 years. You know our town can't absorb that and our town can't absorb the amount of solar that's being developed here and it's not fair and it's unjust. The proposed expansion is in addition to the existing project previously approved in 2021 that aimed to bring thousands of dollars in tax revenue to the town and serve thousands of more homes. Dow says an additional expansion will most likely. Cause several more damage to the environment, especially farmers and their land. We're impacting the wildlife where they can actually go. We're impacting the development of residential homes which actually is going to stunt the growth of our community and our school systems. We're taking away prime farmland for our farmers and our farmers want to farm. Is Windsor first selectman Jason Bauza said. The town has been a ground zero for solar energy development for years. It's frustrating for our town government because while people are looking for an opportunity to vent their frustrations, and I give them all the credit in the world for doing that, the place to do that is not with town governments. We don't have a say in where these things are sited. The town is now looking to the state to help push this proposal through, leaving neighbors to continue their fight. I hope they come away from that meeting understanding that we share their frustrations, we hear their frustrations, but we're bound by the same process where the state retains the authority to cite these things, and we're doing what we can to advocate, but the state needs to get their act together. It doesn't really bring me any comfort at all because I know they're just going to keep coming unless there's something changed at the state level that you know we're protected as a town and we're not going to get any more development. Now Selectman Bauza says the council will review the petition before making any decisions, and a public meeting could be held in the next few weeks and is Windsor Valerie Moravi, Fox 61. Still more breaking news this evening from Middletown. Police say a woman's body was pulled from the Connecticut River this evening, and they say that woman was the person who drove her car into the river near Harbor Park back in February. Emergency first responders and dive teams found the car in the water, but didn't find anyone inside it this evening, DEEP Incon police say they found the body of 51 year old Janine Shaw from Middletown in the water at Haddam Meadows State Park."}]