A weather watch alert as we
track showers and thunderstorms
moving through the state.
We've got that plus your weekend
forecast coming up. Colleagues
have fallen. Hartford officer
Robert Garten sharing their
memories with FOX 61 today.
What they had to say about
his service and dedication
to the city and what is the rise in COVID
cases mean for you? More ahead.
And my doctors say you shouldn't just
look at the numbers. And
tonight there are reports of two
more corrections officers being
assaulted here in our state where
the officers union says it happened.
FOX 61, Connecticut's news station begins
with a weather watch alert and 1st at six.
We begin with that weather watch
alert as we track scattered
storms across the state.
Good evening, and thanks for
joining us. I'm Brent Hardin.
I'm Sarah Sanchez.
Let's get right over to
Chief Meteorologist Rachel
Frank joining us now.
Rachel here in the studio.
We just heard loud claps of
Thunder just moments ago.
Yeah, those storms are producing
big time Thunder and lightning,
and that is likely the
number one threat right now.
Taking a look at the radar,
I'm not seeing a big damaging wind signature,
although I have to tell you,
it's certainly very breezy,
very windy out ahead of these storms.
Even before they move in,
you're already feeling their presence known.
A severe thunderstorm warning is in
effect for Hartford County and just a
sliver of western Tallinn County as well,
and this likely does get expanded
to include more of Tallinn County
as these storms continue to
progress farther north and east.
At about 30 mph we're seeing
some intense rain, some Thunder,
some lightning.
East Hartford right now getting some
heavier downpours and you'll see that
continues down through southern Connecticut,
Bethany Hamden and Wallingford as well.
It looks like we just got a new alert
in as I just said moments ago they
would probably and that alert and
that's what they've done here live.
They've added a severe thunderstorm
warning also including more of toland
and now Windham County as well.
They're saying that we have to worry
about winds and excess of 60 miles an
hour and the chance for quarter sized
hail in the strongest parts of these storms.
So taking a look at kind of
the bigger picture back West of
this line in Litchfield County,
we're just dealing with more
of a steady rain.
There might be a few leftover
rumbles of Thunder,
but the threat for severe weather to
the West of the line at this point
is likely over as we exhaust some of
the instability in the atmosphere.
And I wanted to show you some of
the wind gusts in these storms.
Up to 45 mph in Windsor Locks and I
did see a reported gust to 70 mph
earlier in Litchfield County with some
downed trees and power lines there.
So a severe thunderstorm watch
continues until 11:00 Hartford,
Toland, Litchfield,
Fairfield and New Haven counties,
meaning until 11.
We're watching the radar for
the potential of severe weather,
but I think as we head towards 8,
the main window for severe weather
will likely be over.
We'll be watching though until
11 until that ends up expiring.
And we do have a chance for a shower
or thunderstorm this weekend as well.
So we're going to take a closer
look at the weekend forecast coming
up in just a few minutes, guys.
Community support continuing to pour
in for the Hartford Police Department
after 34 year old police officer Bobby
Garden was killed Wednesday night.
And those who knew him are sharing
their memories of who he was
as an officer and as a person.
Fox 60 One's Carmen Chao joins
us with what they had to say.
This is going to affect the victim's family
as well as the person that did the crime.
Near and far community members were
seen placing sentimental items on
the police cruiser to remember
34 year old officer Bobby Garten,
an 8 year veteran of the Hartford
Police Department comfort dogs for
multiple agencies banding together
to provide emotional support.
Garten's life was taken away
Wednesday night after police say
18 year old Richard Barrington
speed off from a traffic stop,
ran 2 red lights and crashed
into the police cruiser by Broad
Street and Asylum Ave.
This former Harford police detective
then received the bad news.
I had
somebody called me in the middle
of the night that I is an officer
here and he was really upset and he
let me know what was going on and I
was up for the rest of the night.
Garden success started at an early age.
In 2014, he was selected out of
a large pool of candidates to
be a public safety officer at
the University of Hartford for
the one year Garden was there.
Chief Michael Casalowskis
worked closely with him from
the very beginning.
We didn't have to give him much training.
Usually you're developing officers
over the years and usually,
you know, 1020 years in they're
getting to where they need to be.
But Bobby was there from from day one.
Eventually, Harford Police
Department scooped up Garden
as their new officer in 2015.
Aside from his daily duties,
he also stood guard at the Russian lady,
keeping crowds under control
and protecting the employees.
Sarah Clawson, a former bartender there,
says she remembers him all too well.
He always had a smile on his face
that there was probably never a
time I saw him where he wasn't
smiling and just keeping everybody
in good spirits and in a good mood.
He was definitely a Goofball
Gardens presence touching the hearts
of his loved ones and strangers.
Sorry this happened, but thank you.
Thank you for what you've
done here in the eight years,
and that was Carmen Chao reporting.
We'll have continuing coverage
as we remember the service and
sacrifice of Officer Bobby Garden.
Stay with Connecticut's news station on air
and on fox61.com or the Fox 61 News app.
We're also streaming anytime
on FOX 61 plus Roku,
Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV.
Well, new tonight,
a judge rejecting a request by
the Connecticut State Police to
temporarily keep secret the names
of troopers under investigation for
possibly falsifying traffic tickets.
130 troopers were accused by auditors
at UConn of recording false information
on hundreds of traffic stops.
20 of them have already been
cleared of any wrongdoing.
2 Connecticut media outlets made a
Freedom of Information Act request for
the release of those troopers names.
But Superior Court Judge RuPaul Shaw
in Middletown denied that request,
saying it's premature because the
state Freedom of Information Commission
has not yet decided whether those
names should be publicly released.
New tonight two corrections officers
were reportedly assaulted at the Cheshire
Correctional Institution this afternoon.
The officers union president says an
inmate assaulted the officers during
a cell inspection as officers removed
items the inmate was not allowed to have.
The inmate allegedly then
attacked those officers.
Both officers suffered hand and arm injuries.
One even has neck injuries.
This assaults just the latest
in a series of attacks.
Last Wednesday,
an officer at the New Haven
Correctional Center was punched.
Two weeks ago,
two corrections officers at the
Garner Correctional Institution
in Newtown were stabbed and a few
days later a corrections officer
was assaulted by an inmate at the
Cheshire Correctional Institution.
School is back in session and spectators
are back to filling up football stadiums.
And if COVID ever laughed,
well it's back.
So what does that mean for Connecticut?
Fox 61 Somaya Hernandez has been seeking
answers from the experts today and
joins us with the details on what this
up tech means for our stay. Somaya
respiratory season is still months away,
but people are already back
indoors and COVID cases are up.
Some workplaces are even
going back to masking.
Yes, numbers are increasing.
New variants waning immunity,
kids in classrooms and no more
mass testing and vaccinating.
They may say that,
oh, it's just a cold,
it's allergy season, things like that.
I do believe our true number is much higher.
COVID-19 is ticking up ICU stays,
hospitalizations and deaths,
but not to the extent of what it was
even last year or the year before
or the year before that doctor,
Ulysses Wu, is chief epidemiologist
at Hartford Health Care.
He says at least 100 deaths a week are
associated with the virus across the nation.
In Connecticut,
that's anywhere from one to 10 people
a week more than earlier this summer,
fewer than this time last year.
One of the state's largest school districts,
Hartford Public Schools,
is urging its 16 1/2 thousand students
to isolate at home for five days and
mask for five more days upon return.
The district is also equipping school nurses
with a limited supply of testing kits,
but few people see an uptick as clearly
as Arrow Pharmacy manager Dave Flaherty,
who went from zero COVID treatment
prescriptions Midsummer to
now. I've had a half dozen
in the last two weeks.
There's the packs of the treatment,
which we're getting more prescriptions for.
The new vaccine is due to come out.
We don't have it yet.
Hopefully in the next two to three weeks.
Something to keep in mind.
Doctor Wu says everyone's
risk level is different.
So if you are someone who is
susceptible to the worst outcomes,
or if you live with someone who is,
you may want to consider going
back to masking in studio.
I'm Somaya Hernandez, FOX
61 Connecticut's news station.
All right, Somaya, thank you.
And as the nation awaits the
authorization of new COVID boosters,
there's renewed debate on whether
some mandates should return.
Those would include guidelines
for vaccinations and mask usage.
Florida governor and Republican presidential
candidate Ron DeSantis doubling down on
his state's approach during the outbreak.
No mass mandates.
No mandates on school children.
No COVID vacs mandates now.
As of now, the Biden administration has not
proposed any new mask or vaccine mandates.
It's up to individuals to assess their
own risk and decide whether wearing a
mask or getting a shot is necessary.
In the meantime,
First Lady Doctor Jill Biden has
now tested negative for COVID-19.
The first Lady tested positive Monday,
following a weekend when she and the
president visited Florida storm victims.
Since the first lady's original diagnosis,
the president has tested the
negative for the virus as well.
And new tonight,
the DMV is suspending the business
license of a local driving school.
Officials say Shining Star Driving School
out of Manchester had several violations.
Inspectors say they noticed
irregularities in the school's operations.
The state says it is prepared to
help students enrolled in the
school to understand their options.
Officers in New Haven arrests 2 people,
including a juvenile in connection to
a shots fired incident on Wolcott St.
They're facing weapons charges.
Police say the pair led
officers on a brief chase.
Officers found two semiautomatic
guns on those suspects.
Shell casings were also found by
investigators in the area of Wilcott St.
and in Meriden Tonight.
An 18 year old man accused in a multi town
crime spree last month faces new charges.
Robert Barbera now faces second degree arson,
conspiracy to commit arson
and some other charges.
He was arrested previously
along with five other people,
including four juveniles.
They are accused of a multi town crime
spree that included a vehicle theft,
a crash involving a police cruiser
and car fire in Hubbard Park.
Barbera was arrested after the
August incident on other charges
and has been in jail ever since.
Also new tonight,
four people were set to
appear before a judge today,
all facing charges in connection
to the shooting death of a man
in the parking lot of the Hidden
Hookah Lounge in Middletown.
Jonathan Simaday was killed in that
shooting on South Main Street back on May
21st after a month long investigation,
detectives arrested Akil Booker,
Jean Daniels,
Gianni Marmal and May Rains Nunez.
Anyone with information on the shooting
is asked to call police to Portland
now where a man was thrown from his
car when it crashed on Bartlett St.
It happened just before 11 this morning.
Witnesses nearby tried to help
the man before EMS arrived.
We're told the driver had severe
head injuries and was flown
by life start to the hospital.
There's no word on how he's doing
tonight or what led up to that crash.
A crash in Hartford since. Two people,
including a child to the hospital.
Authorities say two vehicles crashed
and were found on an embankment
across from the I 91 SH ov off
ramp near Libor and Jennings Rd.
This all happened just before
11:30 this morning.
Both the adult and child had
to be rescued from the vehicle
were taken to the hospital.
No word on how they're doing tonight.