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Alexander Bradley, right, talked with his attorney Robert Pickering, left, during a court appearance at Hartford Superior Court on Oct. 4, 2013 in Hartford, Conn. (AP Photo/The Hartford Courant, Richard Messina, Pool, File)
HARTFORD, Conn. >> A man who alleges he was shot in the face by former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez in Florida was shot again, this time outside a Connecticut nightclub, where he then opened fire, police said today.
Alexander Bradley was part of a disturbance involving money Sunday that spilled outside of the Vevo Lounge Bar & Grill in Hartford’s South Meadows neighborhood, police Lt. Brian Foley said.
After the 31-year-old was shot multiple times in the right thigh, he retrieved a gun from his car and tried to enter the nightclub, Foley said, before he opened fire.
No other injuries were reported. Responding police officers stopped a car that sped away from the club, and an injured Bradley got out and fell on the street, Foley said. He was taken to a hospital under police guard and his condition wasn’t released, but he’s expected to survive.
Bradley was charged with criminal possession of a firearm, criminal use of a firearm and other crimes. His Connecticut lawyer, Robert Pickering, hung up the phone on a reporter without commenting today.
Detectives recovered 11 shell casings from outside of the club, Foley said, and Bradley’s gun was reported stolen from Springfield, Mass. Foley said the investigation into who shot Bradley is ongoing.
Bradley, an associate of Hernandez, alleges in a Florida lawsuit that he lost his right eye when Hernandez shot him in the face as they argued outside a Miami club last February.
Hernandez is detained on a murder charge in the death of Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player whose body was found June 17 near Hernandez’s North Attleborough, Mass., home. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty.
Boston police, meanwhile, have linked both Hernandez and Bradley to a double homicide in July 2012. Police believe Hernandez and Bradley were in an SUV when someone inside the vehicle fatally shot Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu and Safiro Teixeira Furtado in Boston’s South End, according to a search warrant filed by Bristol, Conn., police.
The warrant doesn’t say who investigators believe pulled the trigger in the double killing or suggest a motive. No charges have been filed in the case. The warrant sought recordings of phone calls made by Bradley while he was jailed in Hartford in October for failing to appear before a Massachusetts grand jury investigating the 2012 shooting.
Investigators say they found the SUV wanted in the Boston homicides at the home of Hernandez’s uncle in Bristol.
Police say surveillance camera recordings show Hernandez and Bradley going into a Boston nightclub shortly after the shooting victims went into the club. The recordings also show Hernandez driving the SUV out of a nearby parking garage with Bradley as a passenger shortly before the shootings, police said.
Boston police called Hartford police today about Bradley’s shooting as part of their investigation, Foley said.
