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New Haven resident Tythrone Ford, age 27, pleaded guilty in district court to a charge stemming from the attempted robbery of a New Haven restaurant, during which an employee was shot, in April 2015.
Acting US Attorney Leonard Boyle said that at approximately 11 p.m. on April 11, 2015, Ford and two other men entered the Smokin’ Wings restaurant on Congress Avenue in New Haven, and demanded money at gunpoint.
One of Ford’s co-conspirators subsequently discharged a firearm and shot a female employee in the stomach, Boyle said. Ford and the other suspects then fled the restaurant.
Responding New Haven Police officers subsequently located a .22 caliber revolver in a nearby trash can.
According to Boyle, eight hours before the robbery at Smokin’ Wings, Ford’s two cohorts also entered Sapiaos Market on Lexington Avenue in Bridgeport demanding money.
During that robbery, the owner of the market, Jose Salgado, was shot and killed while Ford waited outside in a getaway car.
Boyle said that forensic analysis of the revolver found in the trash can in New Haven, and projectiles collected from the scene of both attempted robberies, revealed that the gun was used in both shootings.
DNA collected from the gun revealed that both Ford and one of his associates possessed the gun.
Ford - who has been detained since his arrest in December 2019 - pleaded guilty this week to one count of attempted interference with commerce by robbery. He faces a maximum term of up to 20 years in prison.
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