Quinton Jones.
Firefighters found a man who’d been shot dead in a car Sunday in the Prospect Hill section of the East Rock neighborhood.
Police received a “parking complaint” at 7:35 a.m. about a vehicle near on Ogden Street between Whitney Avenue and Edgehill Road.
A neighbor told the Independent that the call was about a “strangely parked” car that “looked abandoned from a distance.” The person inside was not visible. “The car was pointed the wrong way down the street and was straddling the curb in front of the vacant lot next to 123 Ogden and across from 140 Ogden.”
After getting “rerouted several times,” officers arrived at the scene around 9 a.m. to find that the fire department had already responded to a medical call there, according to police. Firefighters had found a 40-year-old man “unresponsive” inside a blue Nissan Maxima. The man, Quinton Jones, was pronounced dead at 9:01 a.m.
The medical examiner came to the scene and concluded that Jones “suffered what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his pelvic area, causing him to bleed out.” His body was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where an autopsy was to be performed.
A neighbor told police of hearing “noise” at around 3:15 a.m. Police reported receiving no calls at that time about gunfire or ShotSpotter reports from the area at that time.
A bullet hole appeared to be left in the driver-side door frame of the Nissan Maxima, according to police.
Police labeled the shooting a homicide. Asked if police have any suspects, Interim Chief Renee Dominguez said it’s still early in the investigation.
Jones last lived in New Haven’s Beaver Hills neighborhood. He had earlier lived in Hamden.
A longtime friend, Leonard Jahad, who runs the street-outreach Connecticut Violence Intervention Program, said Jones was “always polite’ and never into anything violent.” He was a devoted father to his young daughter, Jahad said.
24th Homicide Of Year
Jones’ homicide is the 24th in New Haven in 2021.
In January, Alfreda Youmans, 50, and Jeffrey Dotson, 42, were found dead by the police inside a Winthrop Avenue apartment, Jorge Osorio-Caballero, 32, was shot and killed in Fair Haven, Marquis Winfrey, 31, was shot and killed in Newhallville, and Joseph Vincent Mattei, 28, was shot and killed in the Hill. Someone shot Kevin Jiang, 26, to death in Goatville on Feb. 6. Angel Rodriguez, 21, was shot to death in Fair Haven in mid-February, his body dumped by the Mill River in East Rock. Dwaneia Alexandria Turner, 28, was shot to death in the Hill on March 16 during an argument with two other women.
On March 26, Alessia Mesquita was shot dead in Fair Haven. Then 20-year-old Mariyah Inthirath was killed Saturday, May 15, on Sheffield Avenue and Jack Hopeton was killed near Orchard and George on Tuesday, May 18. On May 19, Tashawn Brown was shot dead across from Edgewood Park. On May 26, 34-year-old Adrian Barwise was shot inside a Sherman Parkway house during an apparent argument over a game, according to police. Miguel Ramos, 37, was shot dead on Springside Avenue on June 6.
Richard Whitaker Jr. was shot to death on Columbus Avenue in the Hill on June 15 — after having watched a gunman shoot his brother dead in the neighborhood the previous August.
On July 10, someone shot and killed Kevan Bonilla, 20, on Lombard Street in Fair Haven. Kevin Mills, 33, was shot to death on Dixwell Avenue on Aug. 10.
Tyshaun “TyTy” Hargrove, 14, was shot to death on Chatham Street on Aug. 25.
Thirty-year-old Zaire Luciano was shot and killed in the Annex early in the morning of Sept. 6.
Luis Fernando Gonzalez-Sandoz, 45, was shot to death in Fair Haven the night of Sept. 7.
Trequon Lawrence, 27, was shot to death Sept. 8.
Melvin Stanley, 30, was shot dead in a parking lot on Hazel Street on Oct. 17.