Violent New Haven Kidnapping Ends In Charges For 29-Year-Old Man: PD

NEW HAVEN, CT — A man arrested in Hamden for a reported kidnapping in New Haven Wednesday is hospitalized and being held on $500,000 bond, according to New Haven police.

The man arrested in connection with the reported kidnapping is Derek Gilliam, 29, who was already wanted on nearly a dozen warrants, mostly domestic violence related charges in New Haven and a case from East Haven, court records show.

In June 2023, he paid $100 bail to walk out of jail on four charges including making a physical threat, assault, violating a protection order and breach of peace, judicial records show.

In a news release posted to social media Thursday afternoon, New Haven police said that at around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers were called to the Saint Raphael Hospital Emergency Department on a report of an assault and kidnapping.

A woman who said she knows Gilliam, was waiting for a friend to pick her up for work early Wednesday morning, and had just left her house and was getting into her friend's car when, she told officers, Gilliam "suddenly ran up and punched her and picked her up and threw her in his car," police said.

"Gilliam continued to assault a victim as he drove recklessly through the city, threatening to throw her out of the car," a police statement reads.

Gilliam drove into East Haven and pulled in a parking lot, where the woman saw an East Haven cop, authorities said. She was "able to escape the vehicle" and the East Haven officer "called for medical attention, but Gilliam fled before police could respond."

Meanwhile, East Haven cops, who had been looking for Gilliam on the outstanding domestic violence charges, developed information that Gilliam was in the area of the Hamden Plaza parking lot, which is where a Hamden police officer found him, police said.

After fighting with officers, police said, Gilliam tried to get police to "kill him"and was taken into custody, but not before he bit, scratched and tried to punch officers, according to police.

He's currently under law enforcement guard at Yale New Haven Hospital's Saint Raphael Campus on a $500,000 bond for kidnapping and other charges, police said. He's expected to be in court Friday, they added.