Police: Teen violence is escalating
Jun. 30—VERNON — Arrest affidavits for two men who police say are connected to the May 11 shooting of a 19-year-old man outside the Park West apartments on Terrace Drive state that the incident was connected to escalating violence between two groups that include men in their early 20s and teenagers as young as 13.
"What (officers) learned was this was a continuation of an ongoing feud between two groups of young men that has escalated over the years from fist fights to stabbings and then to shootings," Detective John R. DiVenere wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit charging Tyrese Blue, 19, of Vernon with conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and criminal liability for first-degree.
VIOLENCE ATTRIBUTED TO FEUD
2019: Rail Trail stabbing.
2020: Prospect Street shooting.
2021: Terrace Drive assault and beating on May 2, and shooting on May 11.
Police say Blue was an accomplice of the unnamed 17-year-old who was charged with the actual May 11 retaliatory shooting that left the victim with serious injuries.
And an affidavit for Javon Nelson, 20, also of Vernon, who has been charged with second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit second degree assault, states that the May 11 shooting occurred as a way to "exact revenge" for an assault on the unnamed juvenile shooter in an incident that occurred May 2 and was recorded by an 11-year-old.
According to police, Nelson was a participant in the assault alongside two juveniles, age 13 and 16.
Police said Nelson and the teens kicked and stomped the teen, who would go on to commit the May 11 shooting.
Police further said that the 13-year-old was seen wielding a wrench during the attack, which they say occurred by a basketball hoop on Terrace Drive, and that the assault was coordinated in a text message group chat titled "Da Shootas." When some members of the group saw the victim at Rockville High School a couple days after the beating, a person identified in the text message chain only as "Trenton" encouraged them to "shoot 'em."
Tyrese Blue was at the scene of the May 2 assault and was one of the intended targets, but fled before the attackers could harm him, police said.
Blue was also one of the drivers in a Dec. 22 two-vehicle car accident on Route 83 that resulted in the death of an 84-year-old South Windsor resident. Vernon Police Sgt. Robert Marra said that crash remains under investigation.
Blue is being held in lieu of $200,000 bond, and Nelson has been released after posting a $75,000 bond, court records show.
This is not the first incident that police have attributed to an ongoing feud between groups of teens and young men in town.
Following a shooting that occurred last August that left the victim with serious injuries and was classified by police as an attempted murder, police wrote in a report that the incident was "part of an ongoing and escalating feud between two groups of young men that Vernon police have tried to defuse over the past two years."
At least six people — a mix of juveniles and adults — were charged in connection to the shooting, which occurred on Prospect Street. The man accused of committing that shooting was Trenton Merrill, who was 18 at the time.
Police did not respond to questions about the ongoing incidents, including whether the "Trenton" who encouraged fellow members in the text message chain to "shoot 'em" was actually Trenton Merrill.
In September 2019, five teens and one 20-year-old were arrested in connection with the stabbing of a 17-year-old that occurred at the Rails to Trails hiking area near Ryefield Condominiums. According to a police report obtained from Vernon Superior Court, the incident involved two groups that had been involved in at least a dozen physical altercations between May and September 2019.
Police did not identify the juvenile victim, but Trenton Merrill's mother, Carly-Ann Merrill, spoke out at the time.
"Those kids needed to know they were worth something," she said in 2019. "This is not where your story should end at, where you attack somebody with a knife and almost kill them."
Carly-Ann Merrill was later arrested in connection to the 2020 Prospect Street shooting for which Trenton Merrill was charged with attempted murder.
When asked this week if he believes the violence, which has seemingly been contained to members of the feuding groups, is likely to begin affecting the broader community, Mayor Daniel Champagne said, "I don't see that happening.
"We have an excellent police department," he added. "Our police department has been on top of this, and any time someone tries to get out of hand, we put a stop to it."
However, Champagne, a retired Vernon police officer who also serves as a Republican state senator, said state laws are too lax on crime and therefore hinder law enforcement's efforts to keep violent criminals off the streets.
"It's very difficult to go to jail in the state of Connecticut, even for serious crimes, and if you're below the age of 18 it's almost impossible," he said. "So there's really no punishment, and until we can figure out a way to properly address the issue on a court level, I don't think this problem is ever going to go away. I mean, look around Connecticut right now."
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