Connecticut, Stamford | featured news

STAMFORD — The Ferguson Library’s Big Read, featuring the prize-winning memoir “Brother, I’m Dying” by Haitian-American author Edwidge Danitcat, kicks off with the author’s visit to the library on Sunday and a performance by vocalist Emeline Michel following a discussion of the book.

The Big Read, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, will continue through October with a series of programs at the library and elsewhere.

STAMFORD-A Bedford Street bartender is being sought by police after he allegedly beat up his manager -breaking the man’s nose and fracturing his face- early Friday morning after being confronted about his cash register being short.

Sgt. Jennifer Pinto said the assault happened at at Brother Jimmy’s BBQ at 1:35 a.m. and was reported to police about an hour later after the manager showed up at Stamford Hospital for treatment.

“We had the manager and bartender get into it over the drawer being short at the end of the night,” Pinto said.

STAMFORD-A city man facing felong drug charges and who was critically injured by gunfire a little over a year ago was chased down next to Southwood Square and watched by police has he allegedly tried to ditch a loaded handgun. Capt. Richard Conklin said Narcotics and Organized Crime officers were on patrol at 8:15 Wednesday when they came upon a group gathered near 82 Southwood Square. The officers thought it was peculiar and a couple officers got out and walked up on the group unnoticed.

STAMFORD-Police found three shell casings on a West Side driveway after a call to 911 reported shots fired in the area, police said.

Sgt. Jennifer Lynch said police were sent to the area of Rose Park Avenue and West Main Street just before midnight Wednesday. Residents told responding officers that they heard three shots fired.

Just after the shots were fired, two men wearing black hoodies over their heads were seen running west on West Main Street between Rose Park Avenue and Ann Street, witnesses told police.

STAMFORD-A former Greenwich resident just released from federal prison on bomb making charges, was picked up in Stamford on Wednesday on a heroin possession charge. Capt. Richard Conklin said Nicholas Lahines, 43, now of Schuyler Avenue, Stamford, was observed by Narcotics and Organized Crime squad members on patrol rolling through a stop sign on the West side near Stillwater Avenue.

STAMFORD-A South Norwalk man in an illegally parked near Leone Park was charged with cocaine possession on Stamford’s West Side Tuesday night.

Capt. Richard Conklin said Narcotics and Organized Crime squad members spotted a car illegally parked on Delaware Avenue at about 10 p.m. Tuesday night. A man in the car seemed hunched over the center console, but when he spotted the approaching police officers he jammed his hands into his pockets.

The driver, Victor Rodriguez, 28, of Lowe Street, was searched and found in possession of 45 clear plastic bags of powered cocaine, Conklin said.

STAMFORD-A city man who shot five innocent bystanders near Columbus Park in July 2014 because he thought he was about to be assaulted is scheduled to be sentenced today at the Stamford courthouse. After pleading guilty nearly a year ago to four counts of first-degree assault, Dayron Wills, 25, will be sentenced to no more than 15 years of a 25-year sentence that will be followed by five years of probation. The former security guard was seen on video on July 13, 2014, blasting 10 shots from his .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol as a nightclub fight moved toward him on West Park Place.

STAMFORD-A city man wanted as part of a drug sweep conducted last week in Stamford turned himself over to police on Tuesday. Timothy “Tank” Armstrong, 48, was the 11th man from Stamford and Bridgeport to be arrested in a drug operation conducted by the Stamford police department’s Narcotics and Organized Crime squad and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. Armstrong was charged with possession of narcotics and possession of marijuana with intent to sell and sale of narcotics and marijuana. He was released after posting a $5,000 court appearance bond.

STAMFORD-A city man facing a larceny charge in the Stamford courthouse lockup Wednesday morning, was charged with wrenching a fire sprinkler pipe off the ceiling and flooding the basement jail with thousands of gallons of water.

The leak caused a large disruption by triggering the seven-story courthouse’s fire alarm at 9:36 a.m., forcing the evacuation of hundreds of court workers and visitors, Judicial Branch spokesperson Rhonda Stearly-Hebert said.

STAMFORD — A 5-foot-wide bike lane was added to the upper half of Summer Street after it was repaved this month, the result of a long-term push to make city roads friendlier to cyclists and pedestrians.

The city will evaluate all roads scheduled for paving this fall to see whether bike lanes are feasible, Transportation Bureau Chief Jim Travers said.

“When we do repaving we have an opportunity to look at the pavement markings,” Travers said.