Tonight on Connecticut's news station,
an attempted carjacking caught on camera.
Wild video showing the owner
fighting off the suspects plus
facing a judge in a hospital bed.
A man accused beating his father to death.
His family speaking out,
feeling like July with record-breaking warmth
on the way or full forecast coming up and
extreme fire danger risk across the state.
Still very very dry as crews training to.
Stop flames from spreading,
handcrafted and made for hometown heroes.
82 year old Ed is getting his hands dirty.
All to help.
I've been Albany Warren,
Windsor today.
More ahead on the Fox 61 News now at six.
This is Fox 61,
Connecticut's news station.
Good evening. Thanks for joining us
here in the news at six. I'm Ben golden.
And I'm Jen Bernstein.
It's a beautiful spring day
outside right now taking a live
look at Mohegan Sun, Middletown,
New Haven and Hartford.
Nice warm temperatures
we're seeing for April
summers come early and it's only getting
warmer as the week continues on here.
Let's get a first check of the
forecast with chief meteorologist,
Rachel Frank. Hi, Rachel.
Yeah, records could go down in the
coming days, guys who might even
take a run at the 90 degree mark,
which would certainly be unusual for
this time of year to say the least.
But today we hit our first 80 plus.
Degree day in the Hartford area,
the average time that we
do that is April 28th,
so we are a couple of weeks ahead of
schedule but within the realm of normal.
But the average 1st 90 degree
day is not until the end of May.
So if we end up doing that at some
point over the next couple of days
that will be even more unusual
and rare for this time of year.
Meantime though it is beautiful out
there with temperatures that are in the
upper 70s to lower 80s the only complaint.
Or those gusty winds.
And those winds continue to help fuel
that higher risk for brush fires
to spread heading into the day.
Tomorrow we're going to get rid of the wind.
So we'll still have low humidity,
abnormally warm temperatures,
dry conditions, dry brush.
But it may help us out just a little bit.
We'll take what we can get.
Low temperatures tonight will
drop back into the 50s as we
head towards Daybreak and then.
We are off to the races.
We'll see high temperatures climb
into the mid to upper 80s as
we head through the afternoon.
This is inland, but even at the shoreline,
we're looking at high temperatures
climbing into the low 80s as
we head through the afternoon.
We'll do it again Friday and
then changes for the weekend.
Your full forecast coming up.
All right, Rachel, thank you.
Well happening now in Waterbury.
A brush fire happening at the abandoned park.
Holy Land USA crews on the scene
working to knock down those flames.
We are in a red flag warning across
the state as the temperatures
continue to rise to
Rocky Hill. Now for an update to a
story we've been following so far.
All week we're getting a look at home
surveillance video of the moments a
homeowner fought 4 masked men trying
to steal a car from his driveway.
Yeah, now police are needing your
help to identify those suspects.
Fox 61 Samaya Hernandez live
outside of police headquarters with
the very latest for us, Samaya.
Jen and Ben even police tell us that
they are shocked by the bold way
the man engaged one of the suspects,
but then ended up in a full
out brawl with several others.
And that is until his wife's voice chimed in,
making all the difference.
By the time a woman on Valley View Dr.
spoke to dispatchers, her husband
had already fought with attempted
robbers for nearly 40 seconds.
Douglas Russell lives next door.
They're real nice family and it's
just a shame to see this happening.
It was still bright out around 7:00
o'clock Monday evening when a man boldly
pulls an attempted robber from his car
and fights with him in his own driveway.
Then several more young men emerged
from a car and jumped the man until his
wife's voice heard over the ring camera,
causing would be robbers to flee all
four still on the run Wednesday. The
fact that happened in daylight.
That's the scariest part.
Like, it's not at night and you
normally think something like
that might happen at night,
but now they're out and about in daylight.
The man appears to initially walk it off,
but did end up in the hospital.
Two children also live at this home.
The four younger men escaped in a dark
colored Mercedes sedan before police arrived,
but the community is still reeling. It's
been, you know, kind of an adjustment
trying to shift from this role.
You know, thinking about this is
just such a quiet, safe place.
And you know, having this
sort of thing occur regularly
has been a little disturbing.
This guy could have been seriously injured.
Thank God that he wasn't.
But a lot of these suspects now
carry weapons, guns, knives,
and you know, it's not worth it.
Police putting extra patrols on the streets
and encouraging residents not to engage.
But Rocky Hill isn't working it alone.
We do have a great team of detectives
and there's some regional assets
that are out looking for some of
these suspects where they gained
the intelligence and do locate them
and do take them into custody.
And if you have any knowledge
about the whereabouts of any
of the four young men in the video,
you are encouraged to call Rocky Hill police.
Our crews are still digging into this,
and we will have much more for you
coming up on the news at 10:00 o'clock.
I'm live in Rocky Hill.
Somaya Hernandez, Fox
61, Connecticut's news station.
Somaya, thank you. New information.
Tonight in a case out of Waterbury,
where police say a man died this
week after a fight with his son,
the state's attorney says that Wilfredo
Martinez died of a cardiac incident.
And now the medical examiner is examiner is
tentatively classifying it as a homicide.
All of this as Luis Martinez faces
charges of assault and more.
Fox 61's New Haven County Bureau
reporter Julia Le Blanc joining
us now live outside of Waterbury
Superior Court with more. Julia,
hi. Good evening to you Ben.
I got a chance to talk to
Wilfredo's daughter and she
says that she wants his son.
Lewis to spend the rest of
his life in prison for this.
And today the state's attorney
here in Waterbury did announce
that Lewis could likely be facing
more charges in this case.
This is a rather egregious incident.
Charges being brought against 42
year old Luis Martinez from his
hospital bed on Wednesday. This
defendant allegedly yelled at him,
was yelling at the dad and I'm
quoting and was telling him to die
whatever a police say.
Just before 3:00 PM on Monday,
Lewis got into a fight with his dad,
67 year old Wilfredo Martinez.
Wilfredo died at the scene and his
other family members intervened.
The state's attorney says
Lewis hurt them, too.
The prosecution says Lewis left
the scene after hitting his dad
with a wooden stick multiple
times in the chest and back,
knowing he had a serious heart
condition and a pacemaker.
I know what I feel.
It's resentment towards him.
I want him to get. Life in prison
Diana Martinez is Lewis's biological
daughter, but she calls Wilfredo her dad.
She was there as he died in her arms.
And I'm holding him, telling him,
**** don't leave me,
don't leave me yet, don't leave me.
And I'm out here pumping his heart,
see if I can make it pump or something,
and I guess it wasn't enough.
Diana says Lewis has a drinking problem and
he was drunk at the time of the fight. He
loved his dad, but he was very. Problematic.
His defense attorney says
Lewis has been diagnosed with
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
He has an outstanding warrant
out of Naugatuck and is
wanted in two other states.
If he can get life even better.
He took my father, my dad,
something I will never get back. Never.
Someone who Diana says was a hard working
man, taking many under his wing and
loving them with everything he had.
He played a big role. I'm the I'm
the person I am because of him.
Now Lewis is being held
on a $1.5 million bond.
He is expected to be back here in
court in Waterbury on May 17th.
Now in the meantime,
the Martinez family is asking
anyone who knew and loved Wilfredo
to stop by that home on Platt St.
And light a candle in his honor.
We're live here in Waterbury.
Julian Le Blanc, Fox 61,
Connecticut's news station.
Julia,
thank you. New tonight.
The town of Avon says that they're seeing
a rise in burglaries and car thefts in
the first three months of this year.
The Police Department says that there
have been nine home burglaries.
That's the number the town has
seen in the past, on average,
for a whole year.
Police say that they believe the
crimes are connected to the South
American Theft Group and will likely
seek arrest warrants in the future.
The town also looking into eight stolen cars.
Police believe the thefts involved
a group of juveniles from Meredith
to Mansfield now where police
have identified the woman killed
in a crash yesterday.
Police say Vanessa Rivera was driving
on Route 32 when she crossed into the
southbound lane and hit another car head on.
Rivera was pronounced dead on scene.
The driver of the other car was
taken to the hospital with non
life threatening injuries.
Anyone who might have witnessed
that crash should call police.
New
video tonight out of Bristol from
the Police Department showing a
car ramming into a gate at ESPN.
Take a look here.
Police sharing this video
on their Facebook page.
You can see the car going right
into the security gate on Ronzo Road.
Police say that they're estimating
the car caused $35,000 in damage.
If you have any information,
you should call Bristol police.
Well, the city of Bristol on
Wednesday, marking six months since
two of its officers were killed
and another was hurt in an attack.
Today, community members are
gathering to honor Lieutenant Dustin
Demonte and Sergeant Alex Hamsy,
who were killed, and officer Alec Irado,
who was seriously hurt.
Fox 60 One's D'andrea Turner
joins us live from Muzzy Field,
where the game is just getting underway.
D'andrea.
Well, hey, this game has been
under wave since 6:00 o'clock
this afternoon and it is amazing.
It's a beautiful day for a
baseball game and the cause of
this game is also so beautiful.
Many people traveled hours
just for this game to happen.
On the heels of the anniversary of
these two officers dying and let's
just talk about how this happened,
Officer Alvarado's alumni's baseball
team asked to host this game.
Jared Muzzy Field it was his
alumni team and just before this
game started he pitched the he
threw the first pitch and now all
proceeds from ticket sales and
everything else tonight are going
straight to the fallen officers,
families and the crowd is here.
People are showing up and the
the event organizer says that
this was just their way of
showing their support tonight.
When this happened, it still felt
like it hit home and just for everything
that the police force does for us,
it just was a tragedy no matter where
you are to hear about what happened.
And we wanted to do everything
we could at this point to try
to make something good out of it
and help out in any way we can.
Our season is in the spring.
We couldn't do anything immediately,
so this works out.
We've got a great night.
Hopefully it's a good
night for this community,
something positive to happen
to this community,
which is what we're looking forward to.
And something that also happened
here tonight is that this team,
they have customized jerseys.
I'm actually going to ask my
photographer to pan over to the
coaches jersey to see the back of it.
It says Demonte on the top
and a hamsy on the bottom.
And each team member has this
customized jersey tonight,
and they're actually auctioning
off these jerseys.
And all those proceeds again will go
straight to the fallen officers families.
And now this game started at six,
and you still have time to get
out here and show your support.
For the Bristol community,
for now in Bristol de Andrea Turner Fox 61,
Connecticut's news station
de Andrea, thank you. As the
investigation into the Louisville bank
shooting ramps up, we're learning more
about the lone gunman from his family,
the gunman's family releasing a
statement saying that he had,
quote, mental health challenges that
the family was trying to address,
but they had no idea he was
planning a mass shooting.
Writing in part quote,
no words can express our sorrow,
anguish and horror at the unthinkable
harm our son inflicted on innocent people,
their families,
and the entire Louisville community.
Just minutes before the shooting took place,
he allegedly texted those same
family members riding I love you,
one of the first officers on scene,
a 26 year old rookie,
remains in critical condition
tonight after being shot in the head.