Bullet-riddled corpse unnoticed for hours in running car

[Hum]

BRIDGEPORT -- Blood dripping from his mouth and his body riddled by bullets, 25-year-old Dawayne Cobb sat dead in a running car for more than eight hours Wednesday as people came and went from work and children walked to nearby bus stops in a quiet, residential North End neighborhood.

Residents of Sunshine Circle -- a dead-end street off Reservoir and Trumbull avenues that serves as a backyard of sorts for the Trumbull Gardens public housing complex -- said they saw the car as early as 9 a.m. But even though the car was running, with windshield wipers going hours after it had stopped raining, no one reported it to the police. Darkly-tinted windows hid Cobb from passersby, neighbors said.

Cobb, who was identified Thursday by multiple sources as the victim, was not found until around 6 p.m. when a police lieutenant on patrol with a state employee saw the Nissan Maxima and became suspicious.

"They banged on the window and got no response," said Detective Keith Bryant, a police spokesman. "He was slumped over the wheel."

After paramedics pronounced Cobb dead, finding multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, detectives and the city's major crime squad swarmed the cul-de-sac and were on scene until around midnight investigating the city's 20th homicide of 2012. The Maxima, with Connecticut plates, was towed from the scene.

When detectives canvassed the North End neighborhood, Bryant said people told them they had heard gunshots around 11 a.m., but no one reported them.

The detective did not want to speculate on how long Cobb had been dead, but said residents near the public housing complex "have become numb to unusual noises, even gunshots, and they probably didn't react to it at all. And that's not good."

One resident, who declined to give her name out of concern for her safety, said Cobb was found steps from her driveway. She said she saw the car around 9 in the morning, while taking her kids to school, but didn't think anything of it. She became a bit suspicious later in the day when she saw the car still was there when she went out shopping, but didn't call police. When she came back, officers were on scene.

A fence separates the Gardens -- a problematic area where gunfire can be been heard on a regular basis and where Kaqwan Glenn, 20, was shot to death in May -- from Sunshine Circle. On one side, garbage lines the rusty fence, while the other side is grassy and clean. Well-manicured lawns and well-kept houses dot the street, while the run-down, two-story condominium-style buildings linger behind them.

Another resident said he has lived in the neighborhood for several years. He said he has heard gunshots from the housing complex so many times that he has become numb to it, but said the proximity this time makes him worried.

Blunt said there is an opening in the fence along the housing complex, right across from where the homicide victim was found Wednesday, that has become the center of drug traffic in the area. He said people drive to Sunshine Circle and a dealer comes from inside Trumbull Gardens out to Sunshine Circle with the drugs.

Anyone with information on the homicide Wednesday is asked to call Bridgeport police detectives at 203-581-5201. Detectives also encourage those who wish to report information anonymously to use Text-a-Tip by texting tip717, or to use the city's iWatch Bridgeport smart phone application, which can be downloaded for free.

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[Growled Member]

That's a caring bunch of people. Prime examples of humanity.

[Hum]

That would of been hell on Halloween night. :s