Hartford bars, nightclubs being scrutinized by police after shooting death of West Hartford teen
Investigators are now looking into bars and nightclubs in downtown Hartford after a West Hartford teenager was shot and killed outside one over the weekend. As the community mourns, police are looking into whether any rules were broken.
A moment of silence at Veteran’s Memorial Ice Rink in West Hartford at the Conard High School hockey game, pausing as players and fans remember 17-year-old Camden Siegal.
“My heart just goes out… the grief the family must be deal with. It’s just unfathomable,” Bruce Cady of Burlington said.
Siegal should’ve been getting ready to graduate soon from Hall High School, but his life was cut short early Sunday morning.
Police say he was shot around 2 a.m. in front of The Lady and Dark Horse Saloon in the downtown Hartford area. Investigators believe he was not the intended target. Now, his family is holding onto their memories, calling him their pride and joy in his obituary.
“A young person, any person that dies in a tragedy like that, it’s unthinkable,” Cady said.
Investigators are still trying to piece together where Siegal was before the shooting and that includes looking into the bars and nightclubs in the areas to see if they were following the rules.
“We want to make sure that any nightclub that’s not following the laws, it’s not maintaining a safe premises, that they’re met with real enforcement,” Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said.
The state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) confirmed that it’s in contact with police and ready to take further action if investigators call for it.
“It is, I think, a clear message to any bars that operate in the city of Hartford, any nightclubs in the city of Hartford that we’re going to take that very seriously,” Arulampalam said.
He also stressed that random acts of violence are rare in Hartford and that police are committed to holding anyone accountable.
“Any act of violence in which we think that there were laws being broken by a bar or nightclub owner in the lead up to that, we are going to take very seriously,” he said.
For now, the West Hartford community is keeping its prayers for Camden and his family.
“They’re thinking about graduation and college, and now they’re thinking about something completely 180 degrees different. It’s just absolutely horrible,” Cady said.
Camden’s funeral is set for Thursday morning in West Hartford. The owners at both The Lady and Dark Horse Saloon were reached for comment; they have yet to respond. DCP says it has one other open investigation against The Lady, linked to an incident on New Year’s Day.
From breaking news and local politics to art exhibitions, live music, high school sports, small businesses, and cultural events, we celebrate the people and places that make Connecticut unique.