Stamford Police have arrested a man who is accused of hitting a pedestrian, moving him in his vehicle and then fleeing the scene early Monday morning.

Officers were called to a crash involving a pedestrian on Cove Road just south of Van Buskirk Avenue around 1 a.m.

A witness initially told police that dark-colored BMW had been speeding northbound on Cove Road when it failed to negotiate a left curve near Van Buskirk Avenue, went over the sidewalk and hit a pedestrian, police said.

The pedestrian, later identified as a 22-year-old Stamford resident, was thrown into the street and landed in the northbound lane of Cove Road, officers added.

The driver of the BMW, later identified as 50-year-old Carlos Campo, then placed the pedestrian in his vehicle and drove him to Seaside Avenue, where he dropped him off and fled the scene, according to police.

Witnesses had given an initial description of the vehicle and a license plate, but it did not match the BMW, authorities said.

An officer saw a dark-colored BMW traveling westbound on East Main Street with a plate very similar to what was reported by the witnesses. She initiated a motor vehicle stop and determined that the vehicle had been involved in the collision, police said.

The vehicle had front-end damage consistent with hitting someone and there was a cell phone, later determined to belong to the pedestrian, still stuck between the windshield and the hood, officers added.

Campo, of Stamford, admitted to hitting the pedestrian, according to police. He also showed signs of being intoxicated and failed field sobriety tests.

Campo was placed into custody and transported to Stamford Police Department. Police said he ultimately submitted a breath test and his blood alcohol content was .203 percent and then .201 percent, both of which are above the legal limit of .08 percent.

Campo is facing charges including assault with a motor vehicle, operating under the influence, evading responsibility, reckless operation, and operating with a suspended license. He was held on a $10,000 bond.

The pedestrian was transported to the hospital with serious, but non-life threatening injuries. He is currently being treated at Stamford Hospital, authorities said.

Anyone with any information about the collision is asked to contact Stamford Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Squad at (203) 977-4712.

A 19-year-old Brooklyn, Connecticut woman was killed in a crash on Saturday evening.

State police said Alyssa Wetnicka was driving south on Wolf Den Road in Brooklyn just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, went across the northbound lane, veered off the road and hit a tree.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

State police are investigating.

There was a school lockdown in North Haven Monday morning, but police said it was not credible. 

A Facebook post from North Haven police said two students at the high school alerted a school resource officer about a possible threat and the schools were put in lockdown as police responded. 

Investigators determined there was no threat to students in North Haven. 

They said a student who is out of state on vacation read a post about a Middletown school threat investigation and sent a message telling her friends not to go to school Monday, which was reported to the school resource officer. 

A maintenance worker at Staples High School in Westport worker is accused of recording videos of a female student multiple times without her knowledge and school officials said he is on paid administrative lead.

Police arrested 52-year-old Paul Telep Tuesday. According to police, on April 2 the school resource officer noticed that Telep appeared to be recording students, particularly one girl, on his cell phone. The officer confronted Telep and reported the situation to school officials, police said.

Investigators seized the phone and found seven videos of the same student on different occasions. The student told police she was not aware she was being recorded.

Telep turned himself in to police on Tuesday. He was charged with third-degree stalking and released on a $50,000 bond. He is due in court on May 16.

School officials said he has been on paid administrative leave, without prejudice, since April 2 and there is a personnel investigation. 

The director of human resources for Westport public schools said they have no further comment.

Part of Whitney Avenue in Hamden is closed because a utility pole is down in the area of 915 Whitney Ave. and a transformer is leaking, according to the Hamden Fire Department.

Crews from United Illuminating are at the scene and power is out in the area as crews make repairs. United Illuminating is reporting 108 power outages as of 1 p.m.

The fire department Tweeted that Whitney Avenue is closed until further notice and they are urging drivers to avoid the area.

No injuries are reported.

Police continue to search for 34-year-old Anthony Lewis Bussey after finding his 60-year-old father with severe injuries Sunday morning and said they obtained an arrest charging him with assault in the first degree on an elderly person.

Over the weekend, police said Bussey was wanted to questioning after officers responding to reports of a domestic assault on Glenwood Avenue around 10:40 a.m. found the victim unresponsive and bleeding heavily from his head.

The person who filed the complaint said he had been in the basement of the house and heard what sounded like a fight, so he went upstairs and found the victim on the floor, bleeding heavily from the head.

Officers did not find any suspect.

The victim was transported to St. Francis Hospital and found to have a broken arm and a skull fracture, police said. Medical personnel advised police that there is a strong likelihood that he might not survive the injuries to his head, according to police.

Due to the significant nature of the incident, detectives advised the State Prosecutor's Office, who recommended the State Police Major Crime Unit process the scene. A search warrant was secured and executed to process the scene, police said.

Police said Monday that they secured a warrant charging Bussey with assault in the first-degree on an elderly person.

According to police, Bussey is 5-feet-8 and weighs 200 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

His last known address was the home where his father was found and he was not wearing a shirt or shoes when he fled, police said.

His possible whereabouts are unknown.

Anyone with information about the incident or information about where Bussey might be is asked to contact Bloomfield Police Department at (860) 242-5501.

Hartford police said they have identified a 16-year-old from New Britain who is the suspected of causing a crash in Hartford on April 6 that killed a 44-year-old man and the teen will be charged with first-degree manslaughter.

Police said the teen was driving a stolen Chrysler 300, went through a stop sign on Grand Street in Hartford around 12:40 p.m. that Saturday afternoon and hit a Hyundai Santa Fe that was heading south on Broad Street. Police have determined that the car was going 48 miles per hour at the time of the crash.

The Chrysler had been reported stolen from East Haddam and the teen who was driving and three passengers ran from the car after the collission, police said.

Auhorities were able to take two passengers into custody – a 16-year-old ward of the state and a 14-year-old from East Hartford -- but the two others were at large, according to police.

The driver of the Hyundai Santa Fe, 44-year-old Jose Mendoza, of Hartford, was taken to Hartford Hospital, where he died from his injuries, according to police.

Police have been investigating and said they identified the two people who got away from the scene – a 15-year-old Hartford resident who was arrested on an unrelated stolen vehicle violation in Wallingford on April 30 and the driver, a 16-year-old New Britain resident who was arrested in connection with an unrelated stolen vehicle case in Hartford on April 18.

The driver is incarcerated on unrelated charged at the juvenile detention center and will be charged this week with manslaughter in the first degree, evading responsibility in the first degree, larceny in the third degree and reckless driving, according to police.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., on Monday defended recent remarks she made about the Holocaust and Israel and lashed out at President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers for "spreading outright lies" about her, NBC News reported.  

During an interview on Yahoo News’s "Skullduggery" podcast released Friday, Tlaib was asked about her support for a one-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. 

Tlaib responded by noting that Holocaust Remembrance Day recently occurred and said, "There's kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people's passports." 

She continued, "I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them. And so when I think about a one-state, I think about the fact that, why couldn't we do it in a better way?" 

A number of Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, slammed Tlaib for using the words "a calming feeling" when speaking about the Holocaust even though she appeared to say she had that feeling when thinking about a safe haven created for Jews after the Holocaust. 

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Some of the most dramatic damage came from Newtown, where 12 homes were condemned after the storms on May 15, 2018. An empty lot now stands where a home once did on Pequot Avenue.

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Another home in Newtown that was effectively buried by trees and debris during the May 2018 storms.

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More damage to properties in Newtown.

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The landscape at Sleeping Giant State Park was permanently altered when the tornado hit Hamden. After much work, the park reopened months and months after the storm.

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A homeowner in Oxford was left with significant cleanup after a large tree came down on her property.

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Many people spent hours trying to find their way home after the storms on May 15, 2018 after trees and wires came down, closing roads like Hogs Back Road in Oxford.

Ronni Newton, Managing Editor of We-Ha.com, shared all the latest business news going on in West Hartford.

A Hofstra University fraternity on Long Island, New York, has been temporarily suspended after video was shared on social media purportedly showing Alpha Epsilon Pi members forcing a dog to drink beer from a keg at an off-campus party, NBC News reports.

In a five-second video that has been viewed almost 100,000 times on Twitter, a male can be seen holding a small dog over a keg while another male squirts beer into the dog's mouth.

The video was recorded at an off-campus fraternity house in Hempstead, New York, and posted on Snapchat by an Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity member over the weekend, students said.

A spokeswoman for the university told NBC News on Monday that the behavior seen on the video is "unacceptable" and in violation of its Code of Community Standards. Jonathan Pierce, a former international president of Alpha Epsilon Pi and the fraternity's spokesman, said the Hofstra University chapter has been placed on a "cease and desist" due to suspected violations of the organization's health and safety policies.

A bill aiming to protect and improve treatment of police officers and firefighters with PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, will advance to the floor of the state Senate.

This bill comes after nine months of hard negotiation between lawmakers, police and fire unions, and representatives of Connecticut’s towns and cities, and they are optimistic it will pass.

“Our worst day, is their every day, and this is so important that we finally give them a pathway to being fully restored and healed", said Rep. Robyn Porter of Hamden.

NBC Connecticut Investigates previously reported on a survey of almost 8,000 officers on PTSD by the Fraternal Order of Police and NBC owned stations, which took a deeper look at the issues officers reported experiencing after stressful calls.

For years police officers and firefighters have fought stigma, and stagnation when it came to towns and cities giving them the help they needed after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event.

In fact, many lives have been lost by officers and firefighters who could not handle the difficult mental drain known as PTSD.

Now all sides have come forward with a bill that provides help for police and firefighters that experience one of six qualifying events while on duty.

“In those limited incidents where officers will be able to reach the benefits provided by this bill, there will be only medical benefits, and wages replaced", said Nicholas Lukiwsky, past president of the Waterbury police union.

All sides here stress that there are no permanent benefits included in this.

The bill also contains language that provides clearer steps for an officer to get back his or her badge and gun after getting a PTSD diagnosis.

At the same time, everyone admits this bill remains a work in progress on its finer details.

Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong filed a lawsuit alleging that more than a dozen drug companies participated in a vast conspiracy to artificially keep the prices of generic drugs high for consumers.

“On a widespread basis and among the largest manufacturers and large segments of the market, prices are fixed and the market is rigged and we have emails, text messages, phone records, in person meetings, cooperating witnesses that demonstrate conclusively and without a doubt that the major drug manufacturers are openly and brazenly colluding on price and they’re dividing up market share,” Tong said Monday during a press conference in his Hartford office.

Forty-three states have joined Connecticut’s lawsuit.

The state has been investigating the issue of price fixing going back to the previous Attorney General George Jepsen. Joseph Nielsen, an attorney with the office’s Antitrust and Fraud Unit, was an attorney on the first case filed several years ago.

Nielsen said through subpoenas for documents and communications by drug company employees, the state was able to obtain exchanges between competitors that appear to detail when and how they would hike prices on competing drugs. Nielsen said they were fortunate to identify those communications in the documents they obtained.

“Most of them have been very sophisticated about this and have kept it out of writing,” he said. “Many senior executives at these companies have instructed their employees to keep this out of writing. We happened to catch a few of them who were not as good at that and that has allowed us to better understand how this was all working.”

Among the defendants are Pfizer and Teva, two of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, and Teva is the largest generic drug manufacturer.

Both companies denied any wrong doing in separate statements.

A spokesperson for Teva told NBC Connecticut, “The allegations in this new complaint, and in the litigation more generally, are just that – allegations. Teva continues to review the issue internally and has not engaged in any conduct that would lead to civil or criminal liability. Teva delivers high-quality medicines to patients around the world, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in doing so. We will continue to vigorously defend the Company.”

A spokesperson for Pfizer wrote, “The Company has cooperated with the Connecticut Attorney General since it was contacted over a year ago. We do not believe the Company or our colleagues participated in unlawful conduct and deny any wrongdoing. Greenstone has been a reliable and trusted supplier of affordable generic medicines for decades and intends to vigorously defend against these claims.”

Tong said the goal is to win justice for Connecticut customers who were gouged when paying for generic drugs. He said they have evidence that 144 different generic medications saw massive price increases that they allege were in concert across different manufacturers and competitors.

“This is common, every day stuff. As common as frankly aspirin, or pain killers. These are the drugs that all of us in Connecticut take to live,” Tong said. “And that’s why the effort by this group is so profound in its reach and foundational to try and to reduce the cost of American healthcare for all of America’s families.”

Tong says as the case unfolds, he believes a culture of wrongdoing will be exposed within the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry.

He said, “They just go in in the morning and they break the law. Then they have lunch, they come back and they break the law. The go home, they have dinner. They come in the next day and they do it again.”

Lawmakers and parents packed a session at the Legislative Office Building Monday to discuss the future of the state's current religious exemptions available for vaccines.

Connecticut is one of 20 states with a statutory religious exemption for vaccines, meaning parents can claim religion as a reason to keep their kids unvaccinated. Medical experts say those exemptions have led to lower immunization rates in Connecticut and across the country.

“We now have more measles cases in the United States than we’ve had in 25 years,” State Epidemiologist Matthew Carter testified.

Democrats called a hearing on a topic for which no bill has actually been submitted.

The head of the Public Health Committee says Monday’s information session was called in reaction to the outbreak of measles over the border in New York and recent data released by the Connecticut Department of Public Health showing the immunization rates in schools across our state.

Panicked parents filled the Legislative Office Building in protest.

“Our religious practices aren’t actually harming anyone,” said Bryn Chandler of South Windsor.

“They’re trying to claim a made-up crises in order to push forward an emergency bill that we haven’t even seen the language of yet,” LeeAnn Ducat, founder of Informed Choice Connecticut.

Recently released data from the Connecticut Department of Public Health shows 100 schools in the state have vaccination rates below federal guidelines, although some school districts disputed the data.

“The current situation today in Connecticut primes us for epidemics that are preventable,” said Dr. Linda Niccolai, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health. “People who are not immunizing their kids are creating pockets of very vulnerable populations where epidemics can take hold and spread and it really puts everybody at risk.”

“It’s been proven over and over and over again that vaccines are very safe. These disease are not,” added Jillian Wood, executive director of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“It’s very hard for me to reject all of that in order to conclude that people should be able to choose whether or not they can put others at risk,” said Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, a Democrat from Westport who chairs the Public Health Committee. “Your religious beliefs or other beliefs are only so good as they don’t put others at risk.”

Some worry that some parents are hijacking the religious exemption because of their personal fears about the safety of vaccines.

“If you have a religious a true religious issue with vaccines I think that’s one thing. There are too many people are using the religious exemption and it’s really more a philosophical exemption and that’s just not right with us,” said Wood.

Earlier this session, the Committee on Children held a hearing to discuss requiring parents to get a licensed clergy member’s signature for a religious vaccine exemption. It was moved to the education committee.

Rep. Steinberg said a bill to eliminate the religious exemption will likely be brought up in the Senate soon, but could not say whether testimony of Monday’s hearing would be factored into the language.

“We’re not a constitution state. We’re violating people’s rights,” said Rev. Ernestine Holloway, on the prospect of it passing.

There is new support for transit workers from some of Connecticut's representatives in Washington, D.C.

New federal legislation is aimed at better protecting transit workers from assault and other dangers on the job. NBC Connecticut Investigates has been looking into the issue of assaults on Connecticut bus drivers since last year.

Now cosponsoring the Transit Worker & Pedestrian Protection Act are U.S. Congressmen Joe Courtney (D-2nd District), Jim Himes (D-4th District) and John Larson (D-1st District).

"Assaults and other mistreatment of public transit workers is a growing issue, one that places increased risk on both the workers and other passengers, as well as bystanders who might be impacted by a distracted or injured driver," Himes said in a statement.

Surveillance video obtained by NBC Connecticut Investigates showed passengers spitting on bus drivers time after time. The videos also showed food and drinks being thrown at drivers and even a passenger punching a driver in the face.

Of 42 assaults reported between 2016 and 2018, only five had resulted in arrests or charges, according to CT Transit. The incidents were documented in reports filed with CT Transit by the drivers themselves.

If signed into law, it would for the first time require local agencies, such as CT Transit, to report assaults to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Currently, there is no requirement that each assault be included in the department's National Transit Database.

A representative from Rep. Larson's office said that the congressman is supportive of finding ways to protect workers because no one should feel unsafe in their workplace.

“Our transit workers serve our communities every day, and these protections are the least we can do to keep transit workers safe. Everyone should feel safe in their place of work,” Larson said.

Rep. Courtney said this the legislation is a smart way to reduce the safety risk for transit workers.

"The people who get us safely to and from work and home deserve our respect and protection. This bill is a step in that direction," said Rep. Himes.

The proposal would also require agencies to construct physical barriers around bus driver seats. CT Transit told NBC Connecticut Investigates last year that the bus company would be launching its own barrier pilot program. Last month, Cole Pouliot, general manager of CT Transit, said that only one bus has been equipped with a barrier so far.

H.R. 1139 has been referred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

A Madison couple reached out to NBC Connecticut Responds after they experienced a $31,000 problem replacing their home flooring.

Bonnie and Matthew Potter recently took on a huge home improvement project.

Last May, the Potters’ replaced the entire wood flooring in their Madison home, spending $22,000 to do so.

The project seemed to start off on the right track, until the couple experienced one problem after another. Months after Home Depot installed the flooring, the couple noticed what they described as “failed hardwood.”

The Potters’ took pictures showing gaps in the middle of the floor, boards cracking, and spacing between the flooring and the walls.

Their $22,000 investment was far below their expectations.

According to an email exchange between the Potters’ and Home Depot, the couple said installers were sent out to their house several times. The installers informed them it was the material and not the installation and stated that the wood was shrinking in an unusual manner.

The warranty excludes coverage against: expansion and contracting, resulting in gaps between boards or any other problems due to excessive moisture, improper temperature and or humidity levels.

The Potters’ said they have a whole house humidifier, work from home, and keep temperature in the house at a comfortable level. They believe the damaged floor should have been covered by the warranty.

As months went by, the couple claimed the problem got worse and the company promised it would be resolved. When it didn’t, the Potters’ contacted NBC Connecticut Responds.

In a statement released to Responds, a Home Depot spokesperson told us:

“It was a product quality issue that was causing the problem. This is not the product or project quality we aim to provide, so we apologize to Ms. Potter and appreciate the opportunity to make it right.“

After our involvement, Home Depot reimbursed the couple $31,000 for the cost of the job and other related expenses.

The city of New Britain has allocated $50,000 to help people repair their sidewalks and if it goes well, Mayor Erin Stewart says they’ll keep allocating more.

“The city has has over 200 miles of sidewalks in town,”Stewart said.

She says the question “Is the city going to fix the sidewalk in front of my house?” is one of the biggest complaints she gets.

Under city ordinances, New Britain homeowners are responsible for the maintenance and repair of their sidewalks.

“We know that it’s a big cost for homeowners to bear, especially when they have to fix very old and outdated sidewalks that have a lot of damage,” Stewart said.

The city is launching the Cost Sharing Sidewalk Repair Program to ease the burden on city residents.

They’ll cover up to $6,000 in repairs for New Britain homeowners whose applications are approved.

“Our city surveyor will go out and he will meet with the property owner and assess the condition of the sidewalk,” Stewart said. “We would like to help out who applies first and with worst conditions. We have some places in town that still have slate sidewalks we would like to certainly address those first.”

New Britain homeowner Roy Viera says he didn’t know it was on him to fix the sidewalk in front of his house. He thought it was the city’s responsibility.

“That’s why we pay taxes,” said Viera. “I want people to walk, not fall. I want our sidewalks to look nice, the city to look nice, make our house look nice, you know, just safety basically.”

The mayor agrees that it’s a safety issue. Especially for children.

“I think that having a safe pathway to get to schools for our kids is of utmost importance to us, and the city should be a partner with our homeowners and with our residents,” she said.

Homeowner Janet Chumra walks her dog on New Britain sidewalks every day. She says she’s seen dog walkers also trip and fall due to the poor conditions, and that she would apply for the help to repair her sidewalk.

“That would be a good deal that would help a lot of homeowners,” said Chumra.

Stewart said they’re hoping to help around a dozen homeowners in this first round of the project. She added that out-of-town landlords will not be considered, as the city wants to prioritize local homeowners.

To apply, you can contact the city surveyor, Mike Caruso, at (860) 826-3378 or via email at Mike.Caruso@newbritainct.gov.

Flooding, rats, and no bathrooms for female firefighters - these are just some of the issues the New Britain firehouses are facing. The city wants to help them out, but it’s not going to be cheap.

Right now as firefighters deal with fires and spring flooding around the city, they’re also pumping water out of their own facility.

“We have to have small portable water alarms to let the firefighters know when the water starts to build up,” said Deputy Fire Chief Michael Berry.

When his firefighters aren’t out in the field they’re dealing with crumbling, leaking, flooding firehouses.

“One of our pumps broke down so we have a backup pump in there right now,” he said. “You can see all the rust and contaminant on the floor is from the water constantly coming up.”

But flooding is far from being their only challenge.

“The floor is completely falling apart,” he said as he peeled off some tile in the floor of Station 8’s 1940s firehouse. “There’s also animals that get into the walls we’ve had mice in the walls.”

And at the department headquarters living quarters, multiple windows are shattered.

“We just haven’t had the money to successfully replace it.”

In that same firehouse on Beaver Street, the bay has become a drying area.

“Since we don’t have a proper drying area, we just have to lay it out on the apparatus floor to try to get it to dry before their next shift,” explained Berry.

He says of the biggest issues they face in an outdated firehouse is contamination.

“Modern firehouses kind of have a buffer between the apparatus bay and then they have a buffer which is a decontamination area,” he said. “We don’t have that. We don’t have anything that prevents the contaminants from the bays from going up into the living areas.”

And back when New Britain’s firehouses were built, female firefighters weren’t yet factored into the equation.

The locker room and bathrooms are one for all.

“This is where both male and female firefighters have to dress and get ready for work,” Berry said as he walked us through the dressing quarters.

Firefighter Katrina LeClair says the setup isn’t ideal. Especially the open shower situation.

“You gotta let everybody know ‘Hey, I’m going in the bathroom I’m gonna lock the door’ because you’re probably gonna be one of the only females on shift,” LeClair said.

LeClair says the sleeping quarters could also be more private.

“Times are changing, there’s definitely more females in this line of work so some things just need to adjust,” LeClair added.

New Britain Fire Chief Raul Ortiz says the firehouse needs to be a place where all firefighters can recharge.

“Sometimes our firefighters are doing 24, 48 sometimes 72 hours straight inside the firehouse,” said Chief Ortiz.

The chief is currently working with Mayor Erin Stewart to make the necessary changes.

“It’s been interesting to hear some of the things that our firefighters go through in just dealing with their living quarters,” said Stewart. “We’ve been chipping away at this piecemeal allocating resources when we can to put a new kitchen here or a new bathroom there.”

However, the mayor says she knows it’s going to take a lot more time and money to get the city’s firehouses to where they need to be.

“It will be a hefty price tag, but you have to start somewhere and we’re going to start with coming up with a plan and an assessment of what needs to be done in each building and then we’ll take it from there,” she said.

Chief Ortiz said renovations could cost between $10 to 15 million and would take a couple of years, but they're happy to at least have the ball rolling on the process.

Five people are dead and one is unaccounted for after two floatplanes carrying passengers from a cruise excursion collided mid-air in Alaska, NBC News reported.

The two planes carried 14 passengers from a seven-day roundtrip cruise out of Vancouver, according to a statement Monday from Royal Princess Cruises.

The planes collided mid-air about eight nautical miles from Ketchikan, Alaska, at the southeastern end of the state at about 1 p.m. local time. 

Kevin Nathan first introduced us to North Haven track star Erica Marriott three years ago, as she searched for a family through the foster care system. Now he has a special follow up on her difficult and inspirational journey.

Erica Marriott was abandoned and abused and needed a family to adopt her.

Then the North Haven high school senior discovered she had a rare talent on the track, all as she searched for a family.

"You have to be ahead of your obstacles no matter what,” Marriott explained.

Marriott has faced big obstacles off the track. Her mother sent her to Hartford from Jamaica when she was 10.

"I was supposed to be on vacation. It was supposed to be three months and it's been eight years,” Marriott said.

A judge ruled that Erica was at risk for future neglect if she went home to live with her mother. Parental rights were terminated, and Marriott lived in foster care, going from one home to another, looking to be adopted.

“I didn't have food. I did have shelter...I just didn't someone there to love and care. It wasn't the best of situations,” she told NBC Connecticut. “I'd go to bed crying or hungry. I would be beaten. It's not something that I like, but in order to get to where I am today I had to go through that.”

Her sudden success in track helped numb some of the pain. But she longed for a family to give her a forever home.

Ryan Buzzell is her current social worker.

"She is guarded in a certain way, but I respect that because of what she's gone through and the partnerships she's had to figure out it's probably a challenge,” Buzzell said.

Unlike Marriott’s running, so fast and effortless, finding a family can be slow and complicated.

Marriott had been in the DCF system for six years when she met Isatu Jalloh.

“I always know I wanted to be a foster mom...back in Africa in Sierra Leone where I come from, my mom always help people,” Jalloh said.

The Connecticut DCF system matched Jalloh and Marriott.

"I came here to stay as a temporary home for two weeks and then I said OK I don't want to leave," Marriott said.

There are no plans to formally adopt Erica, but her new home with Jalloh and Jalloh's son feels like so much more than foster care.

"I never treated her as a foster kid. I always wanted her to feel like she was in a home where she could talk to me," Jalloh explained.

"I have a family that isn't related by blood, but they’re my family. I can always call them if I need something,” Marriott added.

With her life on track, Marriott’s broken numerous North Haven track records. She usually dominates the competition, even when she’s not 100 percent.

"I always just have to beat the odds."

Marriott earned a track scholarship to Stony Brook and plans to study pre-med next fall. She no longer runs from her past, she embraces it.

"As much as my childhood was bad I don't regret it anymore because it's helped me become a better person,” she said.

"I always push her. Sky's your limit. Go as high as you can,” Jalloh said.

Marriott now chases her dreams of college track, becoming a doctor, and having her own family.

Her life now has a clear focus, and when her kids look into their mom’s eyes someday, this is what she wants them to know.

"I care about you I want you here I brought you here for a reason, because I love you and I want you to live the life that I never had. I can have everything that I need and I am so thankful for it.”

The reason Jalloh is not planning to adopt Marriott is because she is now 18, her own legal guardian, and the goal was all along to make a permanent connection with a family that she now has.

But she does want to reunite with her biological mom and her six brothers someday and help them.

If you have interest in becoming a foster parent, click here for more information.