Update: Police Arrest One Connected to Shooting on Center Street

Update, 3 p.m., Feb. 16:

A Hartford man has been arrested for being involved in shooting Tuesday night that left the owner of Westside Auto Sales wounded in the leg.

Angel Soto, 32, of Vernon Ave. Apt. 205, Hartford, is charged with being an accessory to first-degree robbery, an accessory to first-degree assault and interfering with a police officer, according to Manchester Police Lt. Chris Davis.

Soto was one of three Hispanic men who went to Westside Auto Sales on Center Street at around 5:30 Tuesday night to speak with the shop owner, who police declined to identify. Davis said one of the three men had purchased a vehicle from a dealership in Hartford where the shop owner had previously worked.

A lien worth about $3,000 had been placed on the vehicle because of unpaid parking tickets and the man who had bought the car wanted to be reimbursed, Davis said. When the Westside Auto owner said he couldn't provide the money, one of the three men pulled out a gun and shot off a round into the floor before shooting the Westside Auto owner in the knee, Davis said.

The three men then fled. The shop owner was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford for treatment of his non-life threatening injury.

Davis said Soto was neither the shooter nor the vehicle owner. He declined to identify the other two suspects and said that police are currently looking for the men.

Original story:

The Manchester Police Department has closed a section of Center Street near the intersection with Adams Street as officers investigate a report of shots fired that occurred around 5:30 p.m.

According to Capt. Jim Neiswanger emergency personnel were called to Westside Auto Sales at 634 Center St. after someone called 911 reporting someone had been shot.

What police found was an unidentified male victim in the front parking lot who had sustaind a non-life threatening gun shot wound to his leg.

The man was treated at the scene by paramedics and transported to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford.

Police officials said that they believe this to be an isolated incident and that the shooting is currently under investigation. The captain did not know whether the male gun shot victim was a customer or an employee at the business. Neiswanger said that the department is following leads related to possible suspects, but that he did not believe there to be any at large in the area. Neiswanger said he did not think the incident was part of a robbery but that will be determined as part of the investigation.

Stay tuned to Manchester Patch for more details as the story progresses.