Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 19 - February 29, 2012

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Week of February 29,2012 | Voi.37,iss8
THEU"MIRROR
fairfieldmirror.com
The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
The Reflection of Fairfleld
Bridgeport Clubs Threaten Student Safety
BY COURTNEY TODD
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Students who frequent clubs in
Bridgeport might want to think twice
the next time they decide to head out
there for the night.
Police are now investigating
a drive-by shooting that occurred
shortly after 2 a.m. on the morning
of Saturday Feb. 25 near Club Lo on
the corner of Bostwick Avenue and
Pine Street. Of the two men that were
wounded, one died late Tuesday
night, according to the Connecticut
Post.
Bridgeport police said the victim
is a 23-year-old Bridgeport resident.
The other victim, who was shot in the
buttocks, was also treated at Bridge-port
Hospital and later released, re-ported
by the Connecticut Post on
Monday.
Police on patrol heard multiple
gunshots shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday
and found the two suspects sitting in
their car in front of the nightclub. On
Sunday investigators said that a ve-hicle
with passengers was waiting for
one of the victims, and when the vic-tim
approached the car the suspects
opened fire.
Sources say the shooting could
be gang related but no police officials
could be reached for comment.
This raises the question; will stu-dents
still feel comfortable going to
clubs and other events in Bridgeport
post shooting?
"I definitely don't want to go to
Peter Caty/The Mirror
With a recent shooting in areas close to clubs frequented by Fairfield students, the question remains: Is Bridgeport a safe place for students to spend their weekends?
Bridgeport clubs anymore," said Ni-cole
Kizielewicz '14, "I heard about it
being sketchy sometimes but I didn't
think there was any harm in going
and thought it would be fun, but now
after the shooting it is way more dan-gerous
than I thought"
This shooting comes at an inter-esting
time. It was released on Tues-day
afternoon that musical events Av-icii
and Barstool Blackoutwill both be
coming to Bridgeport's Webster Bank
Arena this April.
Others disagree with Kiziele-wicz.
"I would still feel safe at Webster
Bank Arena because it's not a shady
setting. We go there for basketball
games all of the time," said Kristin
Dangler'14.
Nevin Zais '14 says he would
definitely still feel safe as well.
But what many students might
not realize is the close proximity of
the site of the shooting to Webster
Bank Arena. The corner of Bostwick
Avenue and Pine Street is a mere five
minutes from the Arena.
John Ritchie, assistant director
of the Department of Public Safety,
said that after sending out an alert
about the shooting he can only hope
that students will be more aware of
their surroundings.
"This brings awareness to the
forefront, but I don't think students
are scared," he said.
Ritchie also advises students to
always travel in groups, avoid areas
with high crime rates and stay in well-lit
areas.
"Going to the club itself isn't
nerveracking," said Kelsey Mullane
'15, "The worst part is getting to the
club from your car or a cab. People
know that there is a lot of crime in
Bridgeport but most students are in
denial that anything bad will happen
while they're there."
Martin O'SulUvan/The Mirror
Guess Who Won?
FUSA ELECTION I PAGE 2
Canisius Bomb Scare
Reassessed 10 Years Later
BY TOM SHEA
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
A shoebox. Tin foil. Wire. That
was all that was needed to send pan-ic
through the region and destroy a
university's sense of security.
Ten years ago this month,
Patrick Arbelo walked into Dr. Eliza-beth
Dreyer's "Voices of Medieval
Women" class in Canisius Hall, and
with an apparent bomb in his hands,
held the class hostage for over six
hours.
With the help of Fairfield Police,
as well as federal agencies includ-ing
the FBI, all of the hostages were
eventually released, and Arbelo was
brought into custody shortly before
11 p.m.
"The first experience (I felt) was
surprise," said Dr. Dreyer, talking
about when Arbelo came into her
classroom, "The second feeling was
disbelief. We were thinking 'Is this
really happening?' because it was so
out of the ordinary."
Since that day, there have been
no incidents here on campus that
have garnered nearly as much state
and national attention, but the event
does bring forth some interesting
questions.
How effective was that hostage
situation actually handled? What.
Danica Ceballos/The Mirror
Hostages were held on the third floor of Canisius during the bomb scare.
could've been better or what could
have changed? Is Fairfield ready in
the event that another hostage situ-ation
were to occur on campus?
There are mixed responses
when it comes to these questions.
According to Todd Pelazza, the di-rector
of Public Safety at the Univer-sity,
"We are much better prepared
for a crisis situation today than we
were back in 2002."
Despite being overall pleased
with how the negations went and
how the situation turned out, Pelaz-za
did admit to some areas that could
have been better handled. "First and
foremost, we would've gotten the
message out," says Pelazza. "For ex-ample,
we told our dispatchers to
not give out any information. We re-alize
today that is not the right meth-od.
You want to get the word out as
Anniversary | page 3