Danbury, Fairfield County | featured news

DANBURY - Police are closing down several streets in the downtown for the funeral services of former Sgt. Drew Carlson. Authorities said there would be only one lane of southbound traffic allowed on Main Street near St. Peters Church until about noon Friday to make way for mourners and police officials who are expected to attend the funeral services from throughout the state. Several side roads will also likely be closed including Center Street and possibly Boughton Street. Additional closures may be required depending on the attendance, police said.

DANBURY — After Donald Neary died in March, his family asked that donations in his memory be sent to the local nursing home where he spent the last three and a half months of his life. Neary, a longtime resident of the Danbury area, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. As his health deteriorated, Neary, a retired aerospace engineer and an avid pilot, went to live at St. John Paul II Center, a nursing home on Lincoln Avenue. He died on March 6 at the age of 85.

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.

BETHEL - Police are investigating a downtown robbery that occurred late Thursday night at the Gulf station on Greenwood Avenue.

Authorities said an unidentified man entered the gas station around 10 p.m. on Thursday and “forced” the cashier to give up an undisclosed amount of cash. Police said there was no weapon displayed during the robbery, and the man fled shortly before police arrived.

While officers were at the gas station police received another report of a man attempting to break into a car a short distance away from the station.

NEW MILFORD — State Police Thursday released the names of the officer and the man he shot earlier this week. Kostatinos Sfaelos, 62, was shot and killed by New Milford police officer Christopher Hayes, 33, after Sfaelos approached officers with a shotgun Monday evening, according to a news release. Hayes has been with the department since April 2014, the release said. He was the only officer to fire a shot. It’s not clear how many officers met Sfaelos when he approached them with the gun. The shooting happened after police arrived at Sfaelos’ home on Outlook Road around 4:50 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Police are still looking for two suspects in an early morning home invasion that occurred on Tinker Hill Road.

Authorities said two men wearing ski masks entered the home around 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday. The owner of the home was not injured but police said the assailants took numerous items from the residence.

Detectives with the State Police Western District Major Crime unit responded to the house and are investigating the incident.

Anyone who may have information on the home invasion is being asked to contact Trooper Kenney at 860-626-7900 Ext.

DANBURY - Police have confirmed that city resident David Wellin died from his injuries after his bicycle collided with a car in Southeast Friday.

Officials with the Putnam County Sheriff’s office confirmed that Wellin, 68, of Lilac Lane died from his injuries at Danbury Hospital shortly after the crash on Aug. 28 on Starr Ridge Road around 9 a.m.

Police said Wellin was traveling on his bicycle westbound on Route 6 when he attempted to make a u-turn across the roadway and was broadsided by a 2000 Honda Civic driven by Ryan Smith of Mahopac, NY.

NEW MILFORD — Police fatally shot a man following a brief standoff Monday night.

Police have not identified the dead man but say they were forced to shoot him after he came at officers with a shotgun. No police officers were injured.

State Police Western District Crime Squad has taken over the investigation and a state prosecutor will be appointed from another district to review the shooting.

DANBURY - As Lidia Quilligana begins serving a 15-year prison sentence for abusing three children in her care, the family she left behind remains in turmoil. Quilligana, 32, had been hired as nanny by the children’s single mother in 2014 to help care for her 1-year-old twin boys, and later for their 3-year-old sister after she was removed from day care. But in March 2015, the nanny was caught on a home surveillance system mistreating the children, including holding the girl’s legs to a hot stove and swinging her around by the hair with such force that it came out by the roots.

NEW MILFORD — A $5,000 reward was offered Friday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people who spray-painted a swastika on Thompson's Fine American Comfort Food in town. On Wednesday, the Thompson family came across their two-month old restaurant defaced with a racial slur and Nazi symbol. Townspeople later stopped by to scrub and repaint the building’s facade and later dropped in for dinner to support the business. An anonymous donor offered the reward money, according to a news release from Mayor David Gronbach.