Gun-toting citizens patrol city's violent areas as part of Self-Defense Brigade — but mayor reportedly doesn't like it



Armed citizens have formed a group called the Self-Defense Brigade and have started to patrol the violent areas of Hartford, Connecticut — but the mayor reportedly isn't thrilled with the group's efforts.

What are the details?

“We are legally armed, and we are patrolling,” Cornell Lewis, founder of the Self-Defense Brigade, told WVIT-TV. “The people on Garden Street came to us and asked us for help.”

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The station said Garden Street has seen its share of gun violence, including a double homicide in February, which is what prompted the push for civilian armed patrols.

Organizers told WVIT the group members legally carry as they walk around violent parts of the city.

The station said the Self-Defense Brigade on Saturday was patrolling and even cleaning up Garden Street in Hartford’s North End.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

Image source: YouTube screenshot

“It was important to come out here because we believe that we have to keep the community safe, keep the community clean," Marcus Long of Hartford told WVIT. "And we're doing this by being out here for a few hours [to] clean up the community, pick up the trash."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The station noted that the group members didn't appear to be open carrying, which is banned in Connecticut; rather, organizers earlier told WVIT that armed patrollers would be licensed and carrying concealed weapons.

“We are not vigilantes," Lewis told the station. "We are a group of people that are disciplined and trained. We go to the shooting range."

The brigade also met to discuss gun rights as well as how to get a permit and the practices of safe carry, personal use, and storage of guns, WVIT said.

Lewis added to the station that the brigade is planning on conducting the patrols a few times a week: “We'll be patrolling at night. So it's not just a one-time thing. It's going to be on a consistent basis."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

While organizers have argued the patrols are needed and say they plan to expand the patrols to other parts of the city, WVIT said their efforts face opposition, including from an anti-violence group and Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam.

"Our community has seen so much pain and trauma, and what we need is for those who love this city to do the hard work of healing that pain," the mayor wrote in part regarding the Self-Defense Brigade, according to the station.

The Democratic mayor added to WVIT that Hartford doesn't need people walking the streets with guns and trying to take the law into their own hands.

Armed citizen patrols start in Hartford amid violence concerns youtu.be

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Man walks into police station, confesses to killing girlfriend — then tells police where her body is located



Police in Hartford, Connecticut, were shocked when a man entered the police station on Sunday, admitted to killing his girlfriend — and then told them her dead body was outside in his car.

Pedro Grajalez, 52, walked into the Hartford Police Department just after 3:20 p.m. on Sunday. He told officers at the front desk that he had just murdered his girlfriend — 57-year-old Nilda Rivera — and that her body was inside his vehicle parked outside the station. He also showed officers pictures of her dead body.

Officers quickly arrested Grajalez and rushed to his car, where they found Rivera with more than two dozen stab wounds across her body. They also located the murder weapon inside the car.

Police attempted life-saving measures and rushed her to a nearby hospital, but she was pronounced dead.

In an interview with police, Grajalez confessed to killing Rivera because she had allegedly engaged in an affair. He said he planned the murder for several days, documents about the arrest say, WVIT-TV reported.

After eating at a McDonalds with Rivera, Grajalez said he drove to a secluded area and began stabbing her. He said he waited until she died before driving to the police station. He even claimed to have sent photos of Rivera's stabbed and lifeless body to the man with whom she had allegedly been having an affair.

Grajalez has been charged with one count of murder. He remains in jail on $3 million bail.

Anything else?

Yaitza Casanova, one of Rivera's daughters, told WTIC-TV that he hoped Grajalez faces the same fate as her mother.

"I hope that they do to him what he did to my mother and he suffers slowly," Casanova said.

Rivera's family said that Grajalez had pledged he would never hurt Nilda, but described him as a "very jealous" and controlling person who would "look in her phone and delete stuff and go on her social media and delete people."

Rivera's other daughter, Daniella Valle, said, "My mom was just looking for love. ... She was a mother. She was a grandmother. She was a friend."

Man charged with murder after stabbing New Britain woman to death www.youtube.com

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

6 family members — including 4 kids — shot, their apartment set ablaze in apparent murder-suicide: Police

6 family members — including 4 kids — shot, their apartment set ablaze in apparent murder-suicide: Police



An entire blended family in Wisconsin is dead in what police believe may have been a horrific murder-suicide.

Just after 5 a.m. Friday morning, dispatchers received a call about a four-unit apartment building in Hartford, Wisconsin, which was on fire. When police and several fire department crews arrived, they managed to guide the people in three of the apartments to safety. However, they made a gruesome discovery in the fourth apartment, where the fire began: six dead bodies, four of them children.

The six deceased persons have been identified as Connor McKisick, 34; his wife Jessica McKisick; his stepdaughters, 14-year-old Natalie Kleemeier and 12-year-old Sofina Kleemeier; and his twin 3-year-old sons, whose names were not given. All six died of a single gunshot wound. Connor's wound is believed to have been self-inflicted. The other deaths are still under investigation, though the New York Post reported that there are no other persons of interest associated with this case. All six lived in the apartment together.

Hartland police chief Torin J. Misko told reporters that police also believe that the apartment fire had been started intentionally. Investigators discovered "evidence of an ignitable liquid" in an area of the apartment "where it normally would not be located," Misko said.

Multiple firearms were also recovered from the apartment.

"This is a tragic incident for the family of the deceased, for our first responders and for the Hartland community," Misko wrote in a statement. "The family has asked for privacy while they mourn the loss of their loved ones."

According to one report, Jessica had previously posted on Facebook that she and Connor were married last Christmas. She has no known criminal history, though Connor was convicted of battery and disorderly conduct in 2007.

The fire displaced the other three families who had been living in the same apartment building, and authorities have begun collecting gift cards and other donations to help them meet basic needs.

A GoFundMe page has also been established for each of the three families, as well as for Natalie and Sofina's father, Kyle Kleemeier, so that he can pay for funeral arrangements.

Hartland is located about 25 miles west of Milwaukee.