by Paul Bass | Jun 12, 2012 4:04 pm

(5) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Newhallville

Lt. Kenny Howell wondered why all those fake 911 alarms came in from the Farmington Canal Trail. After two separate daylight attacks on cyclists there on Friday and Monday, he thinks he may have discovered a reason.

The first attack took place Friday around 5:45 p.m. A 38-year-old Yale professor was riding on the canal between Dixwell and Cherry Ann Street near the Hamden border. Someone jumped in front of his bike, pushed him down, grabbed the bike, and fled. The attacker did not display a weapon.

The second attack took place Monday at 6:37 p.m.

A 29-year-old Newhallville man was riding south on the canal toward Bassett Streets. He came across between “five and ten” teens who were fighting among themselves. They turned on him. They pushed him off his bike, he later told police. Then they beat on him with their hands before taking his bike. The victim’s knee was cut.

Police had repeatedly responded to 911 calls from the trail that turned out to be false earlier last week, according to Lt. Howell, Newhallville’s top cop. It happened on several days, after 4 p.m. The cops would show up; they would find no complainant.

Now he wonders whether the false alarms were a test, Howell said. “We think they were trying to test how quickly the police would arrive.”

Whether or not that’s the case, Howell plans to increase patrols on the trail to protect riders and pedestrians. “I will personally take a walk through there,” too, he said.

For block-by-block year-to-date crime info, and daily crime maps, check the Independent’s crime log.