With killing late Wednesday, July is Hartford’s deadliest month in more than four years

A killing on Hillside Avenue late Wednesday night marks the city’s sixth homicide in July and makes it the deadliest month in Hartford in more than four years, a Courant review of city data show.

The spike in violence had already drawn attention to the city this summer. On Tuesday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced additional state resources would go to help the city tackle the problem. New Haven and Bridgeport also were offered state assistance as they grapple with similar violence.

City police data show the last time six people were killed in homicides was May 2015 — a year that would prove to be one of the most violent in recent years with 31 homicides. In July of last year, the city reported one homicide.

“This has been a hard month for the city of Hartford,” Mayor Luke Bronin said during a public police Compstat meeting Thursday. “Most of all for the loved ones and families and friends of those who lost their lives in gun violence, for the community as a whole, for the neighborhoods where these shootings have taken place.”

Late Wednesday night, an East Hartford man, Yowseph Cruz, 25, was eating at a home on Hillside Avenue, when a car drove by and opened fire, killing him. Lt. Paul Cicero, head of the department’s Major Crimes Division, said there were no indications that the deadly shooting was connected to any of the other five homicides this month.

Cruz’s family quietly mourned their loved one Thursday morning, quickly building a memorial where he was shot. They declined to speak amid their grief.

All but two of the homicides this month do not appear connected, according to police. Cicero said the killing of Malcolm Carr at 1994 Main St. on July 8 and Anthony Wright on July 12 at 1972 Main St. may be linked. Wright was best friends with Carr, Wright’s family said.

Police have charged Antoine Keaton with Wright’s killing. They have also made an arrest in the stabbing of Quin Neal, 36, on Nelson Street, charging his brother, Quinton Neal. On Thursday, they announced the arrest of two people in the July 11 killing of Jorge Alicea on Wethersfield Avenue.

Capt. Michael Coates, commander of the investigative services bureau, said that surveillance footage and forensic evidence help, but the community helps bring closure to the cases.

“What really does it is public support; the public coming forward and telling us what they know,” Coates said.

As violence continued in recent weeks, Hartford police have leaned on increased visibility and strategically targeting to try to address the issue. They have officers on walking beats while others are on dedicated patrols, and command staff meet regularly to share the information and intelligence, shifting their resources where they best fit, department officials said.

“What we all want is no shootings. After that we want fever shootings but if the shootings happened and lives are lost we want to bring those who killed to justice because the families and loved ones … deserve that and we want to send a very clear message to our community that you cannot cause violence in our community without consequences,” Bronin said, after praising the work of detectives who made three arrests in the same month the shootings occurred.

Officials credited a robust cooperation in the community as central to the efforts to combat violence that brings together city hall, the police department and a cohort of community partners from Mothers United Against Violence to groups including Peacebuilders.

The state has now slotted in to provide its support. Lamont and Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella offered state police troopers and expedited ballistics testing from the state crime lab.

In Hartford, the specific help would be state police detectives assigned to violence reduction and the freeing up of a Hartford detective assigned to a statewide drug task force. The city also received an additional $25,000 in funds from the state to offset some short-term costs.

“We’re not into this to arrest full street corners or to increase arrests,” Rovella, the former Hartford police chief, said. “We’re in this for prevention … for visibility and increased level of investigative services.”

He added: “We’re interested in … those folks carrying the guns.” Through the beginning of the year, Hartford police said they have taken more than 140 unlawfully possessed guns off the streets through investigations.

Coates said the department has also been in contact and is receiving full support from the Hartford’s State’s Attorney’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Interim Chief Jason Thody highlighted during Thursday’s meeting that most of the crime in the city is down, but in the past three to four weeks, the spike in violent crimes — those that he said impact the community the most — have driven some statistics up.

The Rev. Henry Brown of Mother’s United Against Violence, who met Thursday with Rovella and Thody, said six killings was “far too many.”

But he lauded the work of police to make arrests in three of July’s homicides. “People are really tired about this,” he said, but “people are starting to respond.” He said people are working with police toward solving the problems.

“The police can’t arrest the way out of this problem,” he said. “We have to police ourselves out of this.”

Homicides this month:

July 8: Malcolm Carr, 30, at 1994 Main St.

July 11: Caritaye Davis, 32, at 48 Earle St.

July 11: Jorge Alicea, 34, at 300 Wethersfield Ave.

July 12: Anthony Wright, 28, at 1972 Main St.

July 17: Quin Neal, 36, at 43 Nelson St.

July 25: Yowseph Cruz, 25, at Hillside and Sherbrooke avenues.