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Stamford Neighbor Surprised To Learn Neighbor Is Murder Suspect

STAMFORD, Conn. -- A Stamford woman arrived home just after midnight Wednesday to find a couple of police cruisers stationed outside her 1462 Summer St. apartment building. It wasn't long before she realized that the police presence was connected to an upstairs neighbor who moved in about a month ago.

The Summer Street apartment building where accused murderer Shota Mekoshvili lived in Stamford prior to his arrest late Wednesday.

The Summer Street apartment building where accused murderer Shota Mekoshvili lived in Stamford prior to his arrest late Wednesday.

Photo Credit: Frank MacEachern
The Summer Street apartment building where accused murderer Shota Mekoshvili lived in Stamford prior to his arrest late Wednesday.

The Summer Street apartment building where accused murderer Shota Mekoshvili lived in Stamford prior to his arrest late Wednesday.

Photo Credit: Frank MacEachern
Damage to an apartment door just to the right of the doorknob that a neighbor said was caused by a police tactical unit banging the door open Wednesday night as they looked for a murder suspect. Shota Mekoshvili was arrested later by police.

Damage to an apartment door just to the right of the doorknob that a neighbor said was caused by a police tactical unit banging the door open Wednesday night as they looked for a murder suspect. Shota Mekoshvili was arrested later by police.

Photo Credit: Frank MacEachern

The neighbor was Shota Mekoshvili, 29, who has been charged with the murder of city taxicab driver Mahomed Kamal early Wednesday.

The woman, who declined to be named, said she went into her building and saw a police officer on the steps leading to the second floor. She pointed to the second flood apartment where she said Mekoshvili lived and asked whether the police action was about him. The officer said yes but didn't say anything more. 

She left the building to get a beer at a nearby bar and returned home when it closed at 12:30 a.m. She said the staff at the bar told her a police tactical team had been at the home a few hours earlier.

She returned to her building and spoke with a police captain.

"I asked if he is coming back, He said, 'No, he's not coming back,' and I said 'Oh that's good news,' " she said Thursday while enjoying a cigarette.

She didn't know the police presence was for a murder charge until a Daily Voice reporter told her on Thursday.

She said she was never comfortable with him on the few occasions that she saw him in and around the building.

"He would just look at me and not say a word, and I kept it that way," she said. "You know you just get a feeling about someone that something is not right."

The neighbor said Mekoshvili had a friend, a young man who had a bicycle. The only contact she had with him was when that man asked her for a cigarette one day.

She also noticed that a female friend from New York visited Mekoshvili with what she said was a Honda car. 

The woman pointed to an area on the front door just below the handle that she said police banged in order to gain entry to the building. She also pointed out a damaged area below the door knob of what she said was the apartment door that she believed was caused by police banging to open forcibly the door.

Police said he was not found there but was later captured in a foot chase in downtown Stamford.

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