Thomas Breen photo
Police Chief Karl Jacobson (right) and Mayor Elicker at Tuesday's presser.
A drive-by shooting during a weekend barbeque in the Hill killed 47-year-old New Havener Marquel Lewis — whom police believe was not the intended target of the violence.
Police Chief Karl Jacobson gave that update Tuesday morning during a press conference held on the third floor of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Police called the press conference to discuss the recent arrest of a 48-year-old man in a separate homicide, the June 1 stabbing death of 47-year-old New Havener Travis James during an early morning fight outside of a Whalley Avenue convenience store.
After that portion of the press conference, Jacobson answered questions about still another recent homicide — that is, the shooting death of Lewis on Friday, June 7.
According to an email press release sent out by city police spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart on Sunday, officers responded at around 11:23 p.m. that night to a ShotSpotter activation on Clover Place between Truman Street and Washington Avenue. Dispatchers then reported a gunshot victim in that same area.
The 47-year-old shooting victim, Lewis, was transported by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital “where he succumbed to his injuries.”
“Shortly thereafter, a second shooting victim, a 20-year-old New Haven resident, walked into the emergency room with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to one of his feet,” Bruckhart added. “The second victim stated that he was shot on Clover Place.”
At Tuesday’s press conference, Jacobson said that the drive-by shooting that took Lewis’s life and injured the 20-year-old took place as a barbeque was being held in that section of the Hill. “We don’t believe he was the intended target,” Lewis said.
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).
Jacobson and Mayor Justin Elicker said on Friday that there have been six homicides so far this year, in comparison to 12 at this time last year. Jacobson said four of those six homicides of 2024 “should be cleared pretty quickly.”