A dispute over a girl on Instagram led to a volley of gunfire being exchanged and two people being arrested on Thursday.
At 3:43 p.m., New Haven Police were called to the area of 196 Dover St. after 911 callers reported that two male subjects were shooting at each other. Dispatchers provided responding officers with descriptions of the two males, who were soon found and arrested. Bullet casings and a .380 pistol were found nearby.
Both people, Dashaun Bowes-Ware, 22, of Dover Street, New Haven, and a 17-year-old juvenile, were charged with criminal attempt to commit assault in the first degree, carrying a pistol without a permit, unlawful discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment in the first degree. Bowes-Ware was taken to the Union Avenue Detention Center, and the teen was remanded to the Juvenile Detention Center in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Police said Bowes-Ware claimed he armed himself after the teenager threatened to shoot him. He said the argument between them became volatile after "issues over a girl" surfaced on the social media site Instagram.
Bowes-Ware said the recovered gun wasn't his, but he did admit to carrying and firing his own gun, and told police where he'd hidden it. Detectives later recovered his 9mm handgun.
The teenager claimed he'd only been in possession of a BB gun, which he said he discarded when he saw officers closing in on him.
Police said the case remains open, and they expect to make additional arrests.
