Power Sports Tech Bloodied

by Paul Bass | Jul 22, 2013 2:12 pm

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Posted to: Dixwell

Early rush-hour stopped in both directions. A disoriented 49-year-old man collapsed in the middle of the street, bathed in blood. Women rushed to his aid. One called for somebody to give her a shirt to help stanch the blood. Another asked the bloodied man if he could remember his name. Someone called for an ambulance. That was the scene on Goffe Street near the intersection of County Street around 4 p.m. Friday afternoon. The man in the middle of the street had good reason to be disoriented, based on what police later concluded. Here’s what happened, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman: The 49-year-old man was Brooks MacQuarrie of Wallingford, a service technician at New Haven Power Sports on Whalley Avenue, according to the store’s website. MacQuarrie had finished repairing a “candy-apple” scooter at his shop, then took it for a test drive. On Goffe, according to witnesses, up to a half-dozen teen-aged boys rushed at him, “pushed him from the moving scooter, assaulted him and fled with the scooter, leaving him bleeding in the road.” The above photo shows the scene as women came to his aid. MacQuarrie “suffered significant fractures to his head, ribs and arm,” according to Hartman. He couldn’t remember much when the cops interviewed him, beyond having been rushed at by the “gang of teens.” He was taken by ambulance for treatment to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where his condition was listed as “guarded but stable.” Later that night, around 9:40, Officers David Rivera and Jose Miranda spotted the scooter near the Hamden shopping plaza on Dixwell Avenue. Rivera and Miranda were in an unmarked car. They started following. At first the young men didn’t know they were being followed, according to Sgt. Robert Lawlor Jr., head of the police department’s robbery and burglary unit. When back-up cruisers arrived, the young men figured it out and ditched the scooter behind 31 Orchard Place. They took off, and remain at large, Lawlor said. Police are looking for the pair and “process[ing] the scooter for forensic evidence.” Overdose At Modern: Around the same time as the Goffe incident Friday afternoon, a 39-year-old New Haven man died of an apparent heroin overdose in the bathroom of Modern Apizza on State Street, according to Officer Hartman. A witness had come across his unconscious body as well as a syringe beside him, and informed the owner, who called the cops. Firefighters and ambulance workers showed up too. They tried reviving him with CPR “as he was rushed to the hospital.” It was too late. Meanwhile, the syringe had disappeared. Cops stopped two of the man’s friends as they tried to leave Modern and learned one of them had taken the man’s syringe, heroin and wallet with him. “He said he wanted to protect [the friend] because he was on probation and didn’t want him to face trouble,” according to Hartman. The man had a syringe and drugs of his own on him, too. Police arrested him.

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posted by: robn on July 21, 2013 2:26pm Just as when teens attacked a man in Newhallville several years ago this is totally unacceptable.

posted by: BillyR on July 21, 2013 2:26pm Hmmm….I wonder what they looked like?

posted by: Morris Cove Mom on July 21, 2013 5:46pm I hope all the lawmakers notice this story, and know it by now. This is why we need a ban. This violence will only spread and escalate, and involve more innocent bystanders. Thank goodness this man got the help he needed, and kudos to the women who rushed to his aid.

posted by: Robbin on July 21, 2013 7:51pm Nice to see such good samaritans! Sorry to see this kind of assault and theft. But truly glad to see people helping people….THAT is what our New Haven community is built on—good people!

posted by: Xavier on July 21, 2013 9:16pm Would he have been justified shooting his attackers? These injuries, as reported, sound very serious and indicate a ferocious attack. Fracturing someone’s skull, arms, and ribs sounds like a violent pack like attack. A situation like this should give everyone pause - what you would do? Lose your life so you kids don’t have you around? Or draw your weapon and stop your attackers? When you are being violently attacked, it changes how you might respond to the threat against your life. I am troubled just even putting the question out there.

posted by: RCguy on July 21, 2013 9:19pm Two very sad stories.

posted by: Curious on July 21, 2013 9:58pm This is the worst. This, and the robbery at gunpoint of a couple in Wooster Square the other night by three teens on bikes….this is one of New Haven’s ugly sides, and it’s why we lose good people every year.

posted by: BillyR on July 22, 2013 12:42am Morris Cove Mom….a ban on what….teens?

posted by: Fairhavener on July 22, 2013 10:00am In addition to the illegal dirtbike and ATV problem, there is also a further developing, though long standing, scooter problem in the city. The way that I see it: most scooters are being ridden around with impunity by many teens and young adults in a reckless way; running lights, not stopping at signs, etc. I’ve spoken to more than one NHPD that has said to me they feel scooters are also being used for other more highly illicit uses. In a way this makes sense: they are inexpensive to obtain, easy fix/operate motor vehicles that go 30-40mph (sufficient for around town) and pay no insurance and taxes (on 50 cc models). I am not saying ban scooters too, or bikes but can we actually fix the broken windows and enforce traffic laws even for scooters and address the issue of swarms of teens riding bikes on sidewalks?

posted by: Curious on July 22, 2013 10:33am Where is Local 34 on this? Where are the union-backed aldermen and women marching against crime in this city? Is it because reducing doesn’t pay off as well as cranking out more union jobs?

posted by: cunningham Seems like maybe we ought to ban this “heroin” stuff, too.

posted by: JuliS on July 22, 2013 11:19am xavier, you can’t possibly be trying to connect this with travyon martin, right? because if you are, it would be incredibly disrespectful, and completely off-base. a group of teenagers committing an actual crime has nothing to do with a teenager wrongfully suspected of imagined crime who was tragically stalked and killed because of it. this has nothing whatsoever to do with stand your ground laws.

posted by: Noteworthy on July 22, 2013 2:20pm Julie: This has nothing to do with “Stand Your Ground” laws and neither does the Trayvon Martin case. It is precisely this kind of behavior however, that leads to profiling in the first place. Of course, nobody wants to talk about that with any honesty. Profiling didn’t and doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

posted by: robn on July 22, 2013 3:16pm I was just walking downtown near the museums and a gang of kids came barreling down the sidewalk. One smashed his handlebar against my arm. When I yelled “watch it!” he had the nerve to stop 50’ away and spew almost unintelligible profanity. I’m pretty sure if this happened in that part of Dixwell, I would have gotten my @$$ handed to me also. The NHPD should drop the hammer on kids riding on sidewalks since the fad is obviously picking up again.

posted by: Guy Noir on July 22, 2013 4:27pm Curious- I wondered why a police cruiser was parked in the center of Columbus Park last night. I assumed something happened. I can not find any reporting of this incident.

posted by: Carl Goldfield on July 22, 2013 4:30pm I ride down Goffe on my bike past this spot nearly every day. In the evening, in warm weather, there are always groups of kids passing back and forth to the basketball courts. (The morning commute of course is never an issue.) For years on the ride home, I would pedal like crazy until I got past Hillhouse. Colder weather was my friend - nobody out - one less thing (SUVs, potholes)to worry about. Recently I’ve become really relaxed and began to think I was just a paranoid middle aged (some would consider older) white guy and that the area is benign. I guess I wasn’t and it isn’t. I don’t have a candy apple red motor scooter but I do have a wallet. If I can’t feel safe bike commuting in the City why live here? I can car commute from a suburb. I really hope that the police can get control of this type of behavior. And if the “community” really means what it says about the necessity of community policing the “community” needs to keep up its half of the bargain; now it’s up to the community to turn these kids in. Someone knows who nearly killed this guy. That said I can’t help but note that there may be some small poetic justice here (and I feel terrible that his guy should have to suffer such injuries for any amount of justice.) I do wonder how many of those dirt bikes, quads and scooters roaring around the neighborhood over sidewalks and through parks have been sold by Power Sports?

posted by: BetweenTwoRocks I wish I knew of a viable solution to this problem with teenagers. Clearly it’s difficult to do anything. We don’t want to just accost every kid on a bike with his friends. We don’t want to profile. We don’t want to live in a society where we all feel we need to be armed to the teeth. Unfortunately, this is the result of choices made by parents (or lack thereof) or schools (or lack thereof) or cultural influences a decade ago. Whoever the next Mayor of NHV is, they will need to address this problem. I just hope they can think creatively, cause this is a difficult problem without any easy answers.

posted by: Fairhavener on July 22, 2013 4:50pm @Carl Goldfield: likely not many if at all. Most dirt bikes being ridden around recklessly are bought on the used market or stolen from the suburbs.

posted by: thankfulmom on July 22, 2013 4:58pm My thanks to the women who stopped to help my son. I cannot say how grateful I am. Thank the Lord for our many blessings and your help made our family so blessed to have him home. May God bless you.

posted by: Curious on July 22, 2013 8:44pm @ Guy Noir, I saw it on SeeClickFix, not in the news. http://seeclickfix.com/issues/642387-policing-issue