Police responded to a home on Hulda Lane in Ridgefield on June 5 when the homeowner reported that a group of teens had tried to steal his Land Rover, the News Times reported. The homeowner, later identified as Mauro Tropeano, came to police headquarters the next day with video of the incident that showed him running outside while his Land Rover backed into a lamppost, according to the News Times.
But the next day, a 15-year-old girl arrived at a hospital in Waterbury with a gunshot wound in her back, and a friend told police that she had been part of a group of teens who traveled to the area of Hulda Lane to steal cars, the News Times reported.
Related story: Teen girl shot in Ridgefield may have been part of criminal group
This led police to return to the Hulda Lane home with a search warrant, according to the News Times. Tropeano, who owns Stanziato's Wood Fired Pizza in Danbury, had not mentioned anything about a shooting or firing a gun while reporting the incident, according to the News Times.
When police executed the search warrant, they found seven pounds of marijuana that was wrapped in one-pound packets, according to the News Times. They also found $26,000 in cash, more than 200 pills, steroids, hypodermic needles, and guns, the News Times reported.
Tropeano has not been charged with a crime, and it was determined that he had a permit to carry a handgun and had registered several other guns, according to the News Times. Police had been searching for evidence of unlawful discharge of a firearm, reckless endangerment and first-degree assault, and found several spent shell casings, the News Times reported.
The girl who was shot is expected to recover, though doctors did not remove the bullet because of how close to her spine it was, according to the News Times.
Police told the News Times that the matter was still under investigation, and a lawyer for Tropeano did not comment to the News Times.
Click here to read the News Times story.
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