(Updated) Christopher Santana had driven a friend to the parking lot behind a George Street apartment complex Monday afternoon when he was approached by two masked men.
One “abruptly shot” Santana — before both fled on foot, leaving the 25-year-old New Havener to die.
City police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart detailed Santana’s shooting death in an email press release sent out at 9:32 p.m. The police department first announced the homicide, the city’s 12th of the year so far, in post on the social media site X earlier in the day.
According to Bruckhart’s press release, at around 3:23 p.m., city police officers were dispatcehd to the rear parking lot of 730 George St., near Winthrop Avenue, after receiving 911 calls reporting a person shot.
Upon arrival, officers found the victim, later identified as Santana, “lying on the ground. An individual on scene was attempting CPR. Officers found the victim unresponsive and continued CPR” until an ambulance transported Santana to Yale New Haven Hospital’s York Street campus.
Santana “succumbed to his injuries” at the hospital.
Bruckhart wrote that city police detectives were later able to determine that Santana had driven a friend to the rear of 730 George “where they were approached by two men wearing masks, one of whom abruptly shot him before both males fled on foot. They have not yet identified a motive, but the initial information indicates the shooting is an isolated incident.”
Police ask that anyone who may have witnessed this incident or who may have information valuable to investigators to call detectives at 203 – 946-6304 or through the department’s anonymous tip-line at 866 – 888-TIPS (8477).
According to the city’s most recently published CompStat crime data report, New Haven had seen 22 homicides by this point last year. Santana’s homicide also comes roughly 10 days after the city’s 11th homicide of the year, when someone shot and killed 16-year-old Uzziah Shell at Goffe and Hudson streets on Nov. 22.