Police investigating connection between fight and double shooting in NL

New London – The surviving victim in this morning's double shooting is in critical condition at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, while police continue to search for two suspects.

Michael Ellis, 20, survived the early morning shooting inside a second floor apartment at 53-55 Prest St. The 21-year-old man killed in the shooting has not been identified. An autopsy will be performed Thursday.

The shooting happened at 2:24 a.m. Police said the two suspects kicked in the door of the apartment, there was a fight, and then shots were fired.

Police said both victims were shot several times in the back.

Police are searching for at least two shooters, one of whom they have identified as Miguel Vega, who also goes by the alias Mikey Vega. Police said Vega has a criminal record here, and last August, his parole was transferred to New York.

Vega, 26, is considered armed and dangerous and is possibly headed to New York. Police are checking locations in New York where he is known to hang out. He is Hispanic, 5-foot, 3-inches and 150 pounds with black hair.

Deputy Police Chief Marshall Segar said this morning that the suspects and victims are known to each other and the shooting was a result of a quarrel that he does not believe was drug related. He said the scene inside the apartment was chaotic and other people were there at the time of the shooting. Once the shooting started, Segar said people were literally jumping out of windows.

Segar also said police are investigating whether a fight that happened around 1 a.m. Wednesday in the downtown area is connected with the shooting. No further information on the fight was available.

A witness said that a man named Michael Ellis Sr. lived in the apartment along with his girlfriend and several young men.

"I was sleeping when I heard the shooting," the witness said. "I heard a lot of screaming and yelling. It was crazy. I didn't look outside to see what was going on because I was too scared."

The Rev. Wade Hyslop's church, Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, is on Blackhall Street, around the corner from where the shooting occurred.

Hyslop, a city councilor and former mayor, said he did not know what happened or the people involved in the shooting.

The neighborhood, which has been plagued by drug and other criminal activity, has been improving, Hyslop said.

"I would say the neighborhood has improved greatly over the past two, three years," said Hyslop. "It's been quiet lately. In my opinion it just an isolated incident as unfortunate as it may be.

Early this morning, police blocked off the intersection, and a smaller area at the other end of Prest Street, where it intersects with Blackhall Street.

Members of the State Police Major Crime squad were on the scene taking photos and video. At least seven small evidence cards were scattered on the ground outside the large, multi-family apartment house. The building is next door to the former Connecticut Ice Co.

A window on the second floor is broken.

According to land records, the three-story building was taken by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. in a foreclosure in June 2008. In April 2009, it was bought by Nereida Diaz of Hartford.

Vega has 10 convictions in Connecticut, ranging from second-degree larceny to possession of narcotics.

In December 2006 he was sentenced to four years in prison for possession of narcotics and first-degree failure to appear in court.

In that case, on Jan. 25, 2006, New London police stopped Vega in a routine motor vehicle stop at the corner of Norwood Avenue and Briggs Street.

Police said they searched his vehicle, finding about 3 grams of suspected heroin, 5.8 grams of suspected crack cocaine, a small amount of a suspected hallucinogenic and a large amount of cash.

While being placed under arrest Vega kicked an officer. The officer was not injured.