Crashes, Injuries And Questions

By JANICE D'ARCY

June 28, 2000 Web posted at: 10:34 AM EDT (1434 GMT)

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (The Hartford Courant) -- Fifteen people were hurt, eight cars smashed, one neighborhood is furious and one police department is on the hot seat after a wild accident Monday night in New Haven that may - or may not - have been fueled by a high-speed police chase.

Hamden police are being accused of chasing a sport utility vehicle across city lines into one of New Haven's most crowded neighborhoods and scaring the driver into a speeding rampage.

For their part, Hamden officials were adamant that their officers showed restraint, and that they did not engage in a chase despite the driver's reckless actions.

Regardless, the accusations have raised the specters of racism and mistrust in an urban neighborhood where residents say the border with suburban Hamden is more indelible than any line on a map.

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``Our community feels like this is a total disrespect,'' said Donald Morris, minister of a church near the Newhallville neighborhood that was the site of the crashes Monday. ``I don't know what it is about New Haven that makes people think they can come in here and put our people's lives in danger.''

Morris was one of the local clergy members who helped organize a meeting in New Haven Tuesday. There, the mayors and police chiefs from both New Haven and Hamden met community leaders, and a wall of media, to confront the rage triggered by the Monday night crash. The officials all spoke calmly of needing more cooperation and communication, but they also acknowledged that Monday's incident provided an outlet for a deeper-seated resentment in the city.

Most people agree on how it began: Just before 7:30 p.m. Monday, police believe a Dodge Durango being driven by Eric L. Anderson, 29, of New Haven, hit another vehicle at a Hamden intersection. Witnesses say Anderson took off after the crash, speeding toward his hometown, and blew through a red light, cutting off a Hamden police cruiser. Anderson sped about a half-mile onto crowded Dixwell Avenue in New Haven. He allegedly sped between cars, slammed into them, hurting people, and kept going. As Anderson drove on, he injured more motorists and pedestrians, until his SUV hit a telephone pole.

``Our prayers are with them,'' said Hamden Police Chief Robert Nolan of the eight adults, including Anderson, and three children shuttled to area hospitals after the accident. None of them suffered life-threatening injuries, and only two remained in the hospital by Tuesday evening.

But on either side of Dixwell Avenue, the road that runs through the New Haven/Hamden border, there are polarized perceptions about Monday night.

Hamden police say their officer, Steven DeGrand, immediately called in the erratic driver when Anderson's SUV cut off his cruiser. They say he asked the Hamden dispatcher to tell New Haven police that the driver was headed their way.

Then, Hamden police say, the officer continued to follow the Durango at a safe speed and lengthy distance. They say he was monitoring the Durango to help the New Haven police - but he was not in high-speed pursuit.

On Tuesday, Nolan said he would defer to the state police investigation of the case, but all indications from his department were that DeGrand was not in pursuit. ``There is no reason to pursue anyone for minor violations,'' he said.

In New Haven there is a different version. Ivory Wilson, whose Isuzu Rodeo was a casualty of the incident, said that when his car was hit, he turned around and saw a speeding police car. Thelma Wells said that from her perch at Burger King she watched two Hamden police cruisers speeding, with lights swirling and sirens blaring, down Dixwell Avenue. Hundreds of residents of the Newhallville neighborhood flooded the streets after the crash, and many of them said they saw a police chase. By Tuesday, talk among neighbors and friends in Newhallville turned from details of the accident to the police pursuit.

``They're always chasing somebody,'' Estelle Barfield said of the Hamden cruisers she sees through the plate glass window of her beauty shop on Dixwell. ``Everybody knows that.''

Few are absolving the driver, Anderson, of responsibility. He was arrested by Hamden police Monday on charges stemming from the first accident, and state police are expected to present more charges later this week.

Still, Newhallville residents say the neighborhood of single- and two-family homes, and small mom and pop shops, is jeopardized by what they say are regular Hamden police forays. Some see it as a form of racial profiling, since Hamden police tend to be white and Newhallville is largely black.

Few see Monday's events as an isolated incident.

At the community meeting Tuesday afternoon, speakers raised the specter of Malik Jones, whose 1997 death after a high-speed police chase was the first of a string of racially charged police shootings in the state. New Haven Police Chief Melvin Wearing said city leaders gathered at the very same community hall in the aftermath of the Malik Jones incident.

The Hamden mayor and police chief both defended their police forces, but acknowledged that public perception in New Haven was against them.

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