NORWICH, Conn. — A Superior Court judge more than doubled the bond of 18-year-old shooting suspect Jamel Pires to $2 million on Friday, less than 24 hours after he caused panic in downtown Norwich.
FOX61 viewer video shows a fight that led to Thursday's shooting. The man in the white T-shirt and blue jeans is the shooting suspect, 18-year-old Jamel Pires. One of the two shooting victims can be seen in the video wearing a red T-shirt.
"I'm very angry about it, very concerned," said Mayor Peter Nystrom (R-Norwich). "That's not what we want to be known for."
According to the police report, after the fight, Pires left the scene for less than a minute then returned with a gun and allegedly started shooting, which can be heard on the Norwich Camera Company's surveillance video.
"We did receive an alert from our community manager here at Foundry 66, who alerted us that there was a security threat outside of the building," said Andrew Pigg, owner of the Norwich Camera Company.
His store's camera captured Pires running from the scene.
"It was chaos when I went out there," said Peter Helms, co-owner of Main Plug, a streetwear business on Main Street.
He said he came to the aid of one of the two gunshot victims, who police say fled the scene in the white car seen during the fight video in the rotary. The victims drove themselves to the Backus Hospital, where they were treated and released Thursday afternoon.
"I'm outraged over it," said Helms. "A lot of members of the community have reached out and are terrified. It's a complete threat to public safety."
His partner, both personally and professionally, Suki Lagrito, also works on economic development for the city.
"I'm sick and tired of people raising their children and not instilling good values and ethics and having low moral standards," she said.
The arrest warrant says Pires denied having or shooting a gun during the incident.
There are community chats with police officers basically every month on Saturday mornings and soon this subject will be addressed during one of those meetings.
Tony Terzi is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at tterzi@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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