NEW HAVEN — An off-duty city police officer, moving into a Howard Avenue public housing complex as part of a program to protect residents, shot and killed a resident who allegedly pulled a knife on him in an elevator Monday afternoon, police said.
State police were called to investigate the shooting at the request of New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington, Chief of Police Francisco Ortiz said at the scene Monday night.
"We will not be involved in this investigation in any way," Ortiz said after meeting with angry residents. "I’m very concerned about this. This is a community policing agency."
Ortiz said "everyone pretty much has a lot of anxiety because there are a lot of unknowns."
Several other city and Hill neighborhood leaders also were on the scene, including Alderwoman Jacqueline James, D-3, aldermanic President Jorge Perez, D-5, and former Alderman Anthony Dawson.
The shooting occurred about 4:15 p.m. at the William T. Rowe apartments, 904 Howard Ave. Police quickly converged on the building, a high-rise complex for seniors and people with disabilities.
The 16-story building is across the street from the Connecticut Mental Health Center near Yale-New Haven Hospital.
The officer, identified by police sources as Elliot Rosa, said he fired when the man pulled a knife. Neighbors and police sources identified the dead man as Mack Lucky, 57, and said he lived on the seventh floor.
According to police sources and residents, the fatal shooting allegedly began with a dispute over a dog.
Police sources said Lucky approached Rosa and informed him that dogs were not permitted in the building.
The situation apparently escalated from there.
Several neighbors, after hearing rumors that police said Lucky had pulled a knife, questioned whether that was the case.
"That’s just a cover-up," said a seventh-floor resident who would identify herself only by her first name, Joanne. She said she was waiting for the elevator when it opened immediately after the shooting.
Joanne said she saw a black dog exit, and she backed off because she was afraid of the dog. She then approached the elevator and saw Lucky lying on the floor. Ortiz said it was too early to know for sure what happened.
While there was an operating camera system inside the building, police sources said there wasn’t a camera in the elevator. Lucky and Rosa were the only ones in the elevator when the shooting occurred.
The officer was moving into the complex Monday as part of the department’s 8-year-old Officer in Residence Program.
The program, a collaboration between police and the Housing Authority of New Haven, allows an officer to live in a public housing unit rent-free. In exchange, the officer is asked to provide some services, such as addressing security needs for the facility.
While Ortiz didn’t identify Rosa by name, he said the officer has been put on administrative assignment while the investigation proceeds.
Rosa graduated from the police academy in April 2003.
Another complex resident, Billy Trimble, said he was frustrated "because the officer killed someone. … People are very upset," he said. "We feel that police are just going to sweep it under the rug, and he’s just going to be a dead man."
Trimble said Lucky "was not doing anything. I think he was just afraid of the dog.
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