As Waterbury police continue to investigate what led up to the shooting at the Brass Mill Center Tuesday, we’re taking a closer look at the response.
“It was like fireworks. It goes like 'boom boom boom boom.' Very fast,” Vanessa Dragoj, of Waterbury, said.
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WATCH HEREThat’s how a salon worker inside the Brass Mill Center describes hearing gunshots after five people were shot Tuesday.
Fahd Syed’s family member took a video inside the mall just after the shooting. A person can be seen running with another person on the ground appearing to be injured.
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SIGN UP “She’s screaming ‘I can’t move, I can’t move,’” he said.
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said there was a quick response to the shooting at the mall, which is less than a mile from the police department.
“Mall security was there. There were officers obviously working the area, but not inside the mall at the time of the shooting,” Spagnolo said.
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This isn’t the first incident at the Brass Mill Center Police had to respond to. They include a domestic fight in December of 2021, an armed robbery in September of 2022, a shooting in December of 2023 that left a teenager injured, a swatting call in April of last year, and most recently a man who was found dead near the parking lot last month.
Spagnolo stressed Tuesday’s shooting and the 2023 shooting are not part of an ongoing trend.
“There has not been an incident similar to that. The mall’s fairly quiet most of the time,” he said.
The police chief said it’s unclear whether the Brass Mill Center will be open for business Wednesday. He said it’s a decision mall management will have to make.
