UConn Student Arrested On Weapons Charges
By MATT BURGARD And LYNN DOAN | Courant Staff Writers
May 10, 2008
A University of Connecticut track athlete and Olympic hopeful who police say had been using drugs and acting in an increasingly bizarre manner in recent weeks was arraigned on gun charges Friday in an investigation that police said may have averted gun violence on campus.
Daniel Hutcherson, 23, was taken into custody at the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center on the Storrs campus Thursday, seven days after East Hartford police arrested him on an outstanding warrant as he was trying to buy a Winchester rifle at the Cabela’s outdoor supply store near Rentschler Field.
Officers who searched his apartment Friday found a rifle and a loaded magazine, a prosecutor said.
UConn police said they became increasingly concerned about Hutcherson after receiving a call from a UConn staff member who warned them that Hutcherson had been acting in a “strange, bizarre and erratic” manner in recent weeks. Other staff members and students who know Hutcherson also told police they were worried about him, police said.
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Daniel Hutcherson
Officer Hugo Benettieri, an East Hartford police spokesman, said that as officers investigated the case over the last several days, numerous “red flags” appeared suggesting that Hutcherson might be a risk to carry out the kind of violence that has occurred on other campuses across the country.
“That was our thinking exactly,” he said.
Maj. Ronald Blicher of the UConn Police Department said it was especially important to aggressively pursue the case against Hutcherson as the university prepared for this weekend’s graduation exercises. While there was no specific threat of violence aimed at graduation, police said they were concerned about Hutcherson’s gun purchase.
“In consideration of the university events, specifically commencement, which will place the university in the spotlight this weekend, it was important for the community and the police to work together to identify this type of behavior and address it before it could manifest itself in other ways,” Blicher said in a statement.
He praised the cooperation between his department, East Hartford police, state police and the public.
“This case is truly a manifestation of good police work based on up-to-date community input,” Blicher said.
During a hearing Friday at Superior Court in Manchester, where Hutcherson was arraigned on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and violation of a protective order, Judge John Nazzaro ordered him held, setting bail at $500,000.
“The court deems him a danger to the community,” Nazzaro said.
Hutcherson is a fifth-year senior who was trying to straighten out an incomplete in one of his courses in order to graduate Sunday, public defender Cynthia Barlow told the judge during the hearing. She said he is a standout athlete who specializes in the triple jump and high jump for the UConn track team, adding that he was planning to try out for the U.S. Olympic team.
According to the university’s athletics website, Hutcherson enrolled at UConn after graduating from New London High School, where he received All-City, All-State and MVP honors and was captain of the track and field team. He also lettered in football and basketball, the website said.
According to Hutcherson’s self-profile on his MySpace.com Web page, he lists his hometown as Albany, Ga., but says he moved to New London in 2002. Friends refer to him as “Georjah” on the site. He writes that he plans to graduate from UConn in 2008 with a major and two minors, and also hopes to earn a spot on the 2008 or 2012 Olympic track teams.
But prosecutor Lisa Herskowitz said during the hearing that state police had found a .22-caliber rifle and a loaded magazine in Hutcherson’s Willington apartment Friday morning, despite a protective order issued last year that included a prohibition against Hutcherson’s owning a gun. Herskowitz said officers also discovered a wide variety of drug paraphernalia “all over” his apartment.
“He has been exhibiting very, very bizarre behavior combined with drug use,” Herskowitz said.
The protective order was issued on Oct. 30 of last year after Hutcherson was arrested by UConn police on charges of third-degree assault and breach of peace; he is alleged to have hit his girlfriend during an argument on campus. The protective order barred him from “harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner,” East Hartford police said.
He was also wanted on two active, non-extraditable warrants from Georgia, East Hartford police said.
As that case proceeded through the court system, Hutcherson failed to make a court appearance in March, and a judge ordered a new warrant charging him with failure to appear in court, according to records at Superior Court in Rockville.
Then, also in March, Hutcherson went to Cabela’s and began the application process to buy a Winchester Ranger 12-gauge shotgun, despite the active protective order against him, East Hartford police said. He put a $40 deposit down on the gun, and initiated the 14-day waiting period in which a criminal background check is conducted to determine if he can legally purchase the weapon, police said.
On May 1, Hutcherson returned to Cabela’s, and a store clerk called the state police firearms division to tell them that a customer was trying to buy a gun despite being restricted by an active protective order. State police notified East Hartford police, who went to the store and took Hutcherson into custody based on the earlier warrant charging him with failure to appear in court, police said.
Over the following several days, police said, campus police received the call from the UConn staff member concerning Hutcherson’s behavior, and they then discovered that Hutcherson had been arrested in East Hartford on May 1.
On Thursday, the agencies agreed to send a team of officers to search for Hutcherson on campus in order to arrest him on gun possession charges related to his attempt to buy the shotgun. The officers first looked for Hutcherson at the “track house” where the track team practices, but the coach told officers that he had just left, police said.
The officers then learned that Hutcherson was spotted at the African American Cultural Center across the street from the track house, where a receptionist told them that Hutcherson was inside, police said. The officers searched the building, and eventually met with him in a conference room, where he told the officers that he thought the protective order had expired because he had taken court-mandated classes.
Hutcherson is due back in court on June 4.
Courant Staff Writer David Owens contributed to this story.
Contact Matt Burgard at mburgard@courant.com.