Relative IDs Gunshot Victim in Norwalk Double Shooting Deaths

Police have not released the identities of a man and woman  in a car on Avenue B. But a female relative of the woman told Patch at the crime scene she is 24-year-old Bridgeport woman. Patch is witholding that name, pending police confirmation.

The relative was among more than a dozen family members and friends of the female victim who came to the crime scene.

In mid-afternoon, a police officer showed the female victim's family members a photograph of the woman in the car, which triggered a burst of tragic emotion as the worst was confirmed.

As they watched the female victim's family and friends react to the news, some neighborhood residents burst into tears themselves. Residents brought them bottles of water and cigarettes.

A Norwalk resident at the scene said the female victim visited her in her home until 11:30 p.m. Friday. She said her daugher and another young woman were best friends with the female victim, and that the female victim frequently was in her home.

She said her daughter was at Lake Compounce Saturday and called her, hysterical that she had received a call that the female victim was dead.

Neither family members nor police identified the man in the car with the female victim.

A resident of the neighborhood contacted police at around 7:30 a.m. Saturday to report there was a black car with a broken window and a woman inside not moving.

This morning, Police Chief Harry W. Rilling said it was unclear if the shootings were a double homicide or a murder-suicide. At the scene Saturday afternoon, Dep. Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said investigators had still not determined the circumstances of the deaths.

Kulhawik said no one from the neighborhood with whom police had spoken recognized the car, which was near the intersection of Avenue B and Crown Avenue.

He said the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad was asked to join the investigation because its members have extensive experience in determining the trajectories of bullets.

The car was sitting with the front end away from the curb, appearing as if it the driver was in the midst of either parallel parking it or pulling away from the curb when the shooting occurred.

A resident said he had looked into the car through binoculars and it appeared the female in the driver's seat had been shot in the head. He said it could not see a wound on the man in the front passenger seat, but police confirmed both had been shot.

The man said it appeared the front passenger window had been shot out.

Kulhawik said the Connecticut State Police Major Crime Squad was asked to participate in the investigation because its members have extensive experience determing the trajectories of bullets.

Also at the scene were members of the Norwalk Police Special Services Unit, who handle vice crimes, and Supervising Assistant State's Attorney James Bernadi of Stamford.

The neighborhood is mostly residential. Residents stood behind yellow crime scene tape for hours observing Norwalk detectives and members of the state police Major Crime Squad conduct their investigation.

"This is scary," said Herold Clebert, an immigrant from Haiti who has lived in the neighborhood since 1994. "My kids walk by here everday."

"We've been living here for 30 years," said Willa Milei. "We've never had any problems."

Sofia Andronikides, 17, stopped her SUV on Morton Street to look at the scene of law enforcement vehicles and the crowd of neighborhood residents narrowing the intersection of Morton and Avenue B. Andronikides said she heard what she thought were fireworks at around midnight.

"They were not loud enough to be gunshots," she said. 

The incident marks the first murder in Norwalk this year.