May 9—MANCHESTER — Residents of Seaman Circle told police of a Sunday morning shootout between two men on their street on April 30, according to police affidavits made public this week in Manchester Superior Court after the arraignments of the two suspects.

SHOOTING ARRESTS

DEFENDANTS: Devon Dontay Bonds, 29, who has listed addresses in Hartford and at 1125 Main St. in East Hartford; Lorenzo Thornton, 28, of Hartford.

CHARGES: Bonds is charged with first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of a firearm; Thornton is charged with attempted first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of a firearm in the shootout, and with criminal possession of a handgun, stealing a firearm, fifth-degree larceny, and risk of injury to a child as a result of a subsequent police search of his ex-girlfriend's home on Seaman Circle in Manchester.

STATUS: Bonds is held on $750,000 bond and Thornton on $500,000 bond.

Onlookers got license plate numbers for the vehicles both men were driving. A police sergeant promptly spotted one of them, a silver SUV, within a couple of blocks of the shootout scene.

The sergeant tried to stop the SUV as it turned eastbound on Hartford Road but it sped toward Keeney Street, then got on Interstate 384, heading west this time at speeds over 100 mph.

As the SUV exited the highway in downtown Hartford, Manchester police dispatchers got a call from a man who said he was in the vehicle on his way to Hartford Hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg.

Manchester and Hartford police officers followed the vehicle, which did go to the hospital and did have a wounded driver.

Once police had checked him for weapons, the man was taken into the hospital for treatment. He was identified as Lorenzo Thornton, 28, who lists a Hartford address but had been staying with his ex-girlfriend on Seaman Circle for several weeks, according to police documents.

While Thornton was racing toward the hospital, a witness saw an object thrown from the vehicle onto the highway shoulder, according to affidavits by Manchester police Detective Joseph Davis. The witness stopped, found that the object was a gun, and waited with it for police to arrive.

Despite a bullet wound that had pierced his left thigh and continued into his right thigh, Thornton was able to speak to police.

He said he had been sitting in the SUV on Seaman Circle, near his ex-girlfriend's house, when he saw a black car circle past him twice, according to the detective. On the third pass, Thornton said, someone in the car started shooting at him. He said he jumped out and was immediately shot in the leg, then ran to the other side of the vehicle.

He said the shots came first from the passenger's side of the car, then, after it turned around, from the driver's side. He said he couldn't see who was in the car but two guns were firing from the front seat.

Thornton denied having thrown anything from his vehicle on the highway and continued to deny it after the detective told him about the witness finding the gun on the highway. He also denied having or firing a gun, the detective reported.

A woman who described Thornton as her former boyfriend told police that another man had been ringing her Ring camera doorbell over the last three weeks and that, although she hadn't answered the door, friends had identified him as "Bonds." She said she told Thornton about it, and he said he would "take care of it."

She told police that the man rang her doorbell again around 6:30 a.m. April 30 and she went back to sleep, only to be awakened by gunfire a short time later.

She identified the man with 80% certainty from a police photo lineup as Devon D. Bonds, 29, who has listed addresses in Hartford and an apartment at 1125 Main St. in East Hartford.

Evidence from license plate readers indicated that the plate identified by witnesses had been used on different vehicles over the previous several months — most recently on an Acura sedan resembling the one shown on Thornton's ex-girlfriend's doorbell camera on the morning of the shooting, Davis reported.

One Seaman Circle resident who was out walking his dog that morning told police that he saw a man firing a gun from a parked black sedan toward a silver SUV, then saw a man near the SUV firing back toward the sedan, according to the detective. The man said the black sedan did a K-turn, then drove toward the SUV, firing as it passed.

A woman who was awakened by popping noises told police she looked out her window and saw a man firing up the road, then saw the man limp toward a house, come out seconds later with a cloth wrapped around his leg and drive away in the SUV.

When police went to arrest Thornton at his ex-girlfriend's Seaman Circle home this Sunday, they brought along a search warrant and found a 9mm pistol that had been stolen in a Rocky Hill carjacking, according to a report by Manchester police Detective Robert Dwy.

That led to charges against Thornton that included gun offenses and risk of injury to a child, the latter because the gun and ammunition were unsecured and in easy reach of the children in the house, Dwy reported.

Bonds is charged with first-degree assault and other crimes, while Thornton is charged with attempted first-degree assault and other crimes. After court appearances this week, Thornton was being held on $500,000 bond and Bonds on $750,000 bond. Both remained in custody shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.

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