An off-duty Meriden police officer has transferred back to the New Haven Police Department after being shot at in the street outside an apartment complex in that city.

A short statement released by Meriden police spokesman Sgt. Darrin McKay on Tuesday sheds little light on the circumstances of the Patrol Division officer’s transfer following the incident in New Haven on Jan. 28.

“That officer has since left our agency. She worked in New Haven before transferring here and for personal reasons she has transferred back to the New Haven Police Department,” McKay said.

The officer, whose name was not disclosed, had started driving from the Essex Townhouses at 1134 Quinnipiac Ave. at about 9 p.m. on that night, a Thursday, when the shooting started and she saw a man on the sidewalk firing toward her vehicle, New Haven police have said.

The officer was not injured, but the rear of her vehicle was hit several times. New Haven detectives found several shell casings and other evidence. New Haven police described her as a former New Haven officer "who transferred to Meriden a few years ago."

As part of their investigation of the shooting, New Haven police were working to determine whether the targeting of the officer was work-related, personal, random or a case of mistaken identity. Messages left with the New Haven police Public Information Office were not returned on Wednesday or Thursday.

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