(newhavenindependent)
A mob of young men believed—incorrectly—that a Good Samaritan had killed their friend. Now they had him backed against a wall.

They were in view of a surveillance camera. But not for long.

They smashed the camera. Then they smashed their victim, over and over again.

That bloody tale emerges from the arrest warrant affidavit for one of four men police have charged with participating in the beating. Two more suspects remain at large.

The tale told in the affidavit, combined with other comments from police, fills in the blanks of a gruesome tale that took place on Norton Street the afternoon Jan. 11.

A 21-year man named Damien Blandina was working on his car that day in a parking lot near his apartment building. That apartment building, at 66 Norton, is known as “New Jack City.” (It’s two blocks from the intersection where this recent shooting took place.)

Blandina had the car on a jack. The jack collapsed. The car fell on Blandina, killing him.

It turns out that a 35-year-old neighbor who knows cars had tried to help him before the accident. The neighbor noticed that the jack was rickety, according to Lt. Ray Hassett, the top Dwight neighborhood cop. The neighbor offered to bring a better jack. Blandina said no thanks, but he could use a screwdriver. The neighbor went to retrieve one; while he was gone, the jack collapsed and the man died.

The neighbor returned to the scene. Police took him away for questioning, then released him. The neighborhood heard rumors that the dead man’s friends were blaming him for the accident. He wanted to explain to them what happened.

They weren’t having it...
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Surveillance cams don't always protect us!