UPDATE: Fleeing Other Crashes, Driver, 22, Strikes Eatery, Dies: PD

New Haven CT

15 June, 2022

8:55 AM

Description

NEW HAVEN, CT — A 22-year-old New Haven man is dead after crashing into Scarpellino's restaurant on Forbes Avenue in the Annex Tuesday night. The popular Italian eatery and catering business had closed earlier in the day. According to New Haven police spokesperson Scott Shumway, 22-year-old Wilmer Lopez of New Haven was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. East Haven police Capt. Joseph M. Murgo said that while the "circumstances leading up to the incident as a whole are unclear," the vehicle the man was driving was involved in an accident in Branford. Branford police Deputy Chief John Alves confirmed that a vehicle sideswiped a car at the intersection of West Main Street and Summit Place in Branford and then took off, heading westbound into East Haven. An "investigation is continuing to connect the vehicle that crashed in East Haven to our crash," he said. Murgo said it's believed the same vehicle that fled the Branford crash continued into East Haven where another accident was caused: a roll-over at the intersection of Saltonstall Parkway and Forbes Avenue. The driver also raced away from that crash continuing at a high rate of speed on Forbes Avenue into New Haven where the car ultimately slammed into Scarpellino's. Murgo said that East Haven police never had contact with the car or driver. As East Haven cops got to the Saltonstall crash site, "it came over the radio that a vehicle had crashed into a building up the road on Forbes Avenue in New Haven." "It's my understanding that no law enforcement agency had contact with this vehicle who stayed one step ahead of responding officers who were arriving at their respective accident scenes," Murgo said. The driver involved in the roll-over crash was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital with non life-threatening injuries, Murgo said. Patch reached out to New Haven police for more information on the driver. When there's a response, this post will be updated. Restaurant co-owner Luann Rossetti Scarpellino posted to Facebook early Wednesday, noting that the building had suffered structural damage which prevents it from opening. "We are working with police and others to get the restaurant up and running as quickly as possible," she wrote. In November 2021, a fire shuttered the restaurant for more than a month, just as the busy holiday season had begun for the catering business.