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CT Post - 9/25/2006
Bridgeport sees homicides rise
Police chief says other cities facing similar upswing
By Aaron Leo
BRIDGEPORT - The city's new police chief, acknowledging
an upsurge in homicides this year, says overall violent crime
in Bridgeport is lower than in 2005.
"We're having a spike in homicides, quite frankly,"
Chief Bryan T. Norwood told the Board of Police Commissioners
in his monthly report last week.
But, he added, the rate for total violent crime
in the city fell 10.22 percent to date compared to the same
period last year.
So far in 2006, there have been 24 homicides,
compared to 18 about the same time last year. In all, there
were 21 homicides here in 2005. But there have been arrests
in a little more than half of them, or 58.33 percent, a rate
the chief said needs to improve.
To do that, he pledged to put more detectives
on the street by reassigning them from other duties, such
as specialized task forces.
Of the 23 homicides reported in Bridgeport as
of Sept. 13, nine, or 39 percent, stemmed from disputes in
which the victims knew their attackers, according to a pie-chart
graphic the chief gave to police board members.
A 24th homicide took place late Sept. 14, when
Lynn Larsen, 20, was shot to death by several gunmen as she
and her boyfriend walked into her Pearl Harbor Place apartment.
The case remains unsolved.
Five more homicides this year were related to
narcotics and five others were the result of domestic violence,
the chief said.
Two were from robberies, one from an officer-involved
shooting and one in which the motive was unidentified, he
said.
To help reduce violent crime in Bridgeport,
Norwood hopes to hire new officers and begin training classes
by next March. Classes from the 1980s will become eligible
for retirement in 2008, thinning the law-enforcement ranks
in the city.
He also wants to make space for the new class
by retiring some officers on the sick or injured list, if
they are unable to return to full duty.
To that end, he has ordered medical exams for
all such officers.
Mirroring the trend in Bridgeport, Norwood said
homicides are up elsewhere.
In New Haven, where Norwood was an assistant
chief before being hired as Bridgeport's top cop in March,
there was a double homicide recently.
"It's not indigenous to Bridgeport," he said.
New Haven police reported 18 homicides so far
this year, compared to 15 in total in 2005.
Hartford police reported 17 homicides to date
this year and 22 in 2005.
Meanwhile, violent crimes nationwide rose by
2.3 percent last year, the first increase since 2001, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation reported last Monday.
The FBI categorizes major crimes, in addition
to murder, as rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, felony
larceny and arson.
The national increase in violent crime was the
largest increase since 1991, with only rape showing a decline
in the past year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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