2 Riverside Teens, Friends, Killed In 2 Weeks

(Updated) Seventeen-year-old New Havener Daily Jackson was walking on Shelton Avenue Tuesday evening when someone in a ​“suspect vehicle” shot and killed him and drove away — making him the second Riverside Academy student to die by gunfire in the past two weeks.

“These are connected,” Police Chief Karl Jacobson said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, at which he described the two Riverside homicide victims as friends who belonged to the same ​“group” that has been feuding with another youth crew in town.

The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) first posted about Jackson’s death on the social media site X on Tuesday evening. The department’s spokesperson, Officer Christian Bruckhart, sent out an email press release on Wednesday morning with further details, including an identification of Jackson as the victim. 

And on Wednesday afternoon, Police Chief Jacobson joined Mayor Justin Elicker and New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón on the third floor of police headquarters for a press conference update on Jackson’s shooting death, as well as on the support various city agencies are providing for young New Haveners who might be at risk of retaliation.

All of this comes less than two weeks after 16-year-old Uzziah Shell, who was also a Riverside Academy student, was shot dead near Goffe and Hudson streets in the Dixwell neighborhood on Nov. 22. According to police and school leaders, Shell and Jackson were friends.

Bruckhart wrote in Wednesday’s press release that, at around 6:41 p.m. Tuesday, city police officers were dispatched to an address on Shelton Avenue near Huntington Street in Newhallville for the report of a person shot. Police also received 911 calls reporting ​“a male victim lying in the driveway suffering from a gunshot wound.”

Medical aid was rendered on scene, and the shooting victim, later identified as Jackson, was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Video surveillance obtained by the police department’s Real Time Crime Center ​“showed a person inside a suspect vehicle fire at Jackson as he was walking on Shelton Avenue and initial indications are that this was not a random attack,” Bruckhart wrote. ​“There were no other injuries reported. Ballistic evidence was located in the area.” 

Jacobson later said that police have recovered the stolen car that was involved in Tuesday’s fatal shooting.

The police chief stressed that the department is concerned about retaliation following Shell’s and Jackson’s homicides; they’ve already moved one family out of New Haven, and are preparing to move two more ​“just for safety purposes.”

Asked if these fatal shootings might be retaliation for a different event that took place prior to Shell’s death on Nov. 22, Jacobson said it’s possible. 

He said police are aware of ​“a series of events that occurred over a period of time” involving youth ​“groups” that may be related to Shell’s and Jackson’s deaths. 

He said police have looked into a separate shooting and a feud over a stolen dog as potentially related. But, ​“we’ve opened our investigation to every avenue,” he said. Those incidents may be related, or this may be about something else entirely, like a fight over a girl. 

He thanked the school district for working so closely with police. ​“We always need more info,” he said, asking for further help from the community.

Jacobson added that police don’t believe anyone at Riverside ​“is against each other,” meaning that the perpetrators of this violence likely are not from the school. ​“It’s something from the outside,” he said about this spate of violence.

Jackson and Shell were friends and classmates at Riverside, the city’s last remaining alternative high school for at-risk students.

Negrón described a public school ceremony that took place on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at which Riverside students and staff remembered Shell. ​“Daily spoke about his friendship with Uzziah” during that Riverside school event, Negrón said. Those remarks struck her as a testament to Jackson’s ​“commitment to friendship and respect.” 

Less than a week later, Jackson himself would be shot and killed.

Jacobson said that, on Wednesday morning, the police department had ​“a major meeting” with juvenile probation, the public school district, the city’s Youth and Recreation Department, Project Longevity, Clifford Beers, and the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program (CT VIP) at Riverside’s school building on Hallock Avenue in the Hill. 

All of these groups are working together in ​“assisting kids” and their families in that small school community. ​“We’re going to share as much info as we have to make sure we know who the kids are at risk,” Jacobson said. 

Negrón said that the school district has deployed to Riverside its ​“crisis team” of social workers and other mental healthcare professionals, who are providing the resources students and staff need to ​“process” Shell’s and, now, Jackson’s deaths. 

“This is a first for us. We’ve never lost two young lives in less than two weeks,” let alone from the same school, Negrón said. ​“Please know that these days are very hard for the school community.”

Godfather: "Daily Loved His Friends & Family"

Colin Ryan, who has known Jackson for the past decade, told the Independent that he and his family became so close with Jackson over the years that they took to calling him their godson.

“We knew Daily since he was about 7 years old when my then girlfriend, now wife, and I moved to a house just a couple houses down from where he was living with his aunts, siblings, and cousins,” Ryan wrote to the Independent in an email comment on Wednesday. 

“Daily was an adorable kid who was bustling with energy. He started coming over to do odd jobs to earn money and eventually he would come over for dinners and holidays or just to hang out with us in the backyard. Although it wasn’t anything formal we settled on calling him our godson and us his godparents. We watched him grow into a young adult and he was there with us through marriage and the birth of two children of our own.

“Daily loved his friends and family with a warmth and depth that was enviable for a person of any age. He would talk excitedly about gifts at Christmastime. Not gifts that he would receive, but gifts that he was going to buy for others. He was a best friend to many. He was family to us and many more. And if our own two sons can one day show the same character he did, we will be grateful.”

Principal: "We Are Now Left With A Void"

Outside of Riverside’s Hallock Avenue school building Wednesday morning, Riverside Principal Derek Stephenson declined to comment. He said that the public school district’s spokesperson would be sending out a comment on his behalf later in the day.

At 12:46 p.m., public schools spokesperson Justin Harmon sent out an email press release containing a comment attributed to Stephenson. 

“We at Riverside Academy bear an insurmountable burden as we mourn the tragic passing of another of our students,” that comment reads.

Stephenson continued:

On Tuesday, December 3, 2024, the life of Daily Jackson, a junior at Riverside, was taken from us as a result of senseless gun violence.

Daily was a friend to many, but it was his allegiance, respect, and the unbridled alliance he had for the late Uzziah Shell that has immeasurably impacted our entire school community. Sharing his emotions and offering support to those who needed it were hallmarks of his many admirable characteristics. Daily was a quiet, introspective, compassionate young man with a fierce sense of loyalty and protection of those he cared for, which made him a confidante to his friends, family, community, and entire Riverside ​“family”.

Steadfast in his fidelity and faithfulness to others, Daily brought positive energy to Riverside. We are now left with a void which we know can never be filled. 

Today we process, reflect, mourn, and hope that Daily’s tragic loss of life will serve as a reminder of life’s fragility, as we keep him forever in our hearts.

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).

Tuesday’s homicide, meanwhile, came one day after 25-year-old New Havener Christopher Santana was shot and killed in a parking lot behind a George Street apartment complex in the West River neighborhood on Monday afternoon.

Jackson’s death marks the 13th homicide so far this year. According to the city’s most recently published CompStat crime data report, New Haven had seen 22 homicides by this point last year.

Maya McFadden contributed to this report.