Stamford police seeking noontime shooting suspects

Shots fired on West Main Street in Stamford took out the rear window of this Toyota 4Runner. Shots fired on West Main Street in Stamford took out the rear window of this Toyota 4Runner. Photo: John Nickerson / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: John Nickerson / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Stamford police seeking noontime shooting suspects 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD —Police are asking for the public’s help in finding two men, one of whom fired seven rounds from his automatic pistol, narrrowly missing pedestrians and motorists on crowded West Main Street after noon Monday.

Video cameras in the area caught glimpses of the two black males. One suspect had a thin build, medium length dreads, wearing a long sleeve white shirt with a black tee shirt over it, white high top basketball sneakers and carrying a heavy black winter coat. He may have had a soft cast on his right arm. The second man had a stocky build wearing a grey hoodie, black jacket over it and dark colored cargo pants. Anyone with information on the suspects are asked to call investigators at 203 977-4417.

It was 12:30 p.m on West Main Street, with scores of people walking in the area and cars barely crawling through the neighborhood, when a gunman fired seven shots across the street in a brazen shooting Monday. Police think the man might have been firing at another man standing in the driveway of 235 West Main Street.

The noontime shooting quickly brought the area to a halt, with police closing West Main Street until a little after 3 p.m. and Rose Park for longer.

“There were a lot of kids in strollers and people walking around enjoying the nice weather and there was a lot of traffic,” Lt. Diedrich Hohn said. “It could have been a lot worse than what we have now. Luckily, everybody it seems escaped injury.”

Bullets tore into four apartments on the north side of West Main and pierced the bedrooms of two residences at 235 West Main, Hohn said. Although elderly residents were in two of the apartments at the time, no one was hit, he said.

Bullets also took out the rear window of a Toyota 4Runner parked in one home’s driveway.

Police are still looking for the person who fired the gun and one other male who fled on foot to nearby Ann Street before disappearing. Witnesses reported seeing a blue Audi A4 pull up in the westbound lane of West Main Street, then seeing two men get out and walk across the street. One then fired an automatic weapon, police said.

Several calls about shots being fired were reported to police about 12:30 p.m. Seven shell casings were later found on the sidewalk of Rose Park Avenue next to West Main Street.

The casings were discovered by a bomb-sniffing dog called to help with the search for evidence, Capt. Beth Erickson said.

A motive for the shooting has yet to be determined and police weren’t sure who or what was being fired at. Hohn said a video camera captured the three men running up the hill before they turned onto Ann Street.

The Audi was seen fleeing from the scene at a high rate of speed, Hohn said.

jnickerson@scni.com