Paul Bass file photo
Det. Dash: Cellphone records helped crack case.
A gun purchased in Milford ended up connected to a Hill homicide — after the purchaser lent the firearm to a relative’s friend, who lent it to another friend, who then tried to sell the gun in New Haven, only to be shot and killed himself.
Those details and much more are included in an arrest warrant affidavit written and signed by New Haven Police Det. Gregory Dash on April 24.
The warrant details how a 26-year-old New Havener named Tyrese Blue, Jr. went to Cedar and Cassius Streets in the Hill to try to sell a gun with an obliterated serial number. Blue himself wound up shot and killed — resulting in the arrest of another 26-year-old New Havener, whom police have accused of committing murder.
Local cops made the arrest after six months of investigative work involving witness interviews, the review of cellphone records and surveillance video footage, and attempts to figure out how exactly a gun that was purchased at a Milford gun shop in August wound up involved in a New Haven homicide in October.
The Independent obtained a copy of the 14-page arrest warrant affidavit on Monday. Police held a press conference about the arrest on May 1, after taking the suspect into custody on April 26.
The 26-year-old arrestee has been charged with five felonies, including murder, criminal possession of a firearm, and carrying a pistol without a permit. He has not yet entered pleas to any of those charges, and is being held on a $3 million bond.
In the affidavit, Dash wrote that, on Oct. 14, 2023 at around 8:38 p.m., city police received a single 911 call from someone who said that Blue, Jr. was “laid down” with blood coming from his stomach on the sidewalk outside of a home on Cedar Street.
Responding officers, firefighters, and ambulance personnel found Blue, Jr. bleeding from his abdomen, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on scene by a Yale New Haven Hospital doctor.
Next to Blue’s body was a “black cross body bag” which contained a 9 mm handgun. Police later determined that that gun had not been fired during the incident.
A witness — who did not see the shooting itself — told police that they saw a white four-door sedan turn onto Cesar Street from Cassius, three people exit the vehicle, two of whom then fled on foot and one in the car. Video footage from a Ring doorbell camera, meanwhile, showed Blue at around 8:32 p.m. stepping onto the sidewalk on Cedar Street and collapsing, after which a suspect — who was seen exiting a car with what appeared to be a gun in his hand — rummaged through Blue’s clothing before fleeing on foot with another suspect.
Police later found a “ballistic projectile” lying on Cedar Street near where Blue had been killed. They also found a 9 mm fired cartridge casing in a Chrysler 300 taken as evidence from the homicide scene. That car also contained Blue’s cell phone.
On that phone, police found text messages that Dash interpreted as meaning that, on the day before and day of his murder, Blue had been “negotiating a price to sell a firearm” with someone he had been texting with.
The phone’s call history also revealed that Blue had dialed a particular phone number at 8:31 p.m. on Oct. 14, and, at that very same time, a suspect as shown in video surveillance footage from Cedar Street received a call. “The timeframe coincides with Blue Jr. placing an outgoing call” as he arrived on Cedar Street.
Another city detective searched through CashApp for the phone number that Blue had called at 8:31 p.m., and found an account associated with someone nicknamed “Thotta Makk.” Through a Facebook search, police identified Thotta Makk as the 26-year-old New Havener whom they ultimately arrested for murdering Blue. This person lived on Cassius Street, only 400 feet away from the scene of the murder, and is a convicted felon, and therefore not legally allowed to have a gun.
Later on, on Oct. 20, a “cooperating witness” told police that they had been with Blue earlier on Oct. 14, and confirmed that he had gone to Cedar Street to try to sell a Glock 26 handgun with a saved-off serial number.
A search warrant for the call records of the phone number that Blue had called at 8:31 p.m., meanwhile, revealed that that same number had called Blue at 8:24 p.m. the night of the murder. Approximately six minutes later, that number also received a six-second call from Blue’s phone. “These cell phone records corroborated Suspect #1 receiving the phone call seen on the surveillance video” from Cedar Street.
On Nov. 9, police acted on a judge’s warrant to search the 26-year-old Cassius Street resident’s apartment. The suspect “Exited the residence upon the SWAT Teams commands.” The suspect told police that there was a firearm in his brother’s room. He said it belonged to a friend. Police subsequently found a 9 mm firearm with an obliterated serial number.
The gun appeared to be a Glock 26 9 mm handgun, the same make and model police believe Blue had been trying to sell the night he was killed. Ballistic testing later revealed that that handgun was not responsible for the fired bullet casing found in Blue’s car.
On Nov. 9, after arresting the 26-year-old suspect on firearm charges, he spoke with police without a lawyer present. According to Dash’s writeup, the suspect “provided different statements that were contradictory and can be disproven” by police.
The suspect told police that, on the night of the homicide, he had been visiting his baby’s mother in West Haven and had received a call from his mother letting him know that a homicide had occurred near their home. He initially said he was not in New Haven at the time of Blue’s murder.
When police confronted the suspect with evidence showing that his cellphone had been in the area of Cedar and Cassius streets at the time of the murder, he “changed his story” and said he was in fact inside his home on Cassius Street. He also told police he remembered receiving a phone call from Blue’s number the night of the homicide, “but did not know who it was.” He said he then called Blue’s number back “but did not talk to him.” He also could not account for text messages sent between his phone and Blue’s phone from five hours before the murder.
The suspect then “changed his story” again, stating that, when Blue was murdered, he “didn’t see what happened but heard the shot.” He told police now that he was “outside the car,” referring to Blue’s Chrysler 300, when the shot was fired. He also said he ran away after the shot was fired.
He then told police he had no involvement in Blue’s murder, but instead only “stole the car.” He then requested an attorney and ended the interview with police.
Subsequent investigative work, with the help of the federal ATF Electronic Tracing System, revealed that the Glock with the obliterated serial number had first been legally purchased on Aug. 29, 2023 at a store called Swamp Yankee Firearms in Milford. In January 2024, police found the 24-year-old man who had first bought the gun, at his home in Meriden. That man told police that, in September, he had lent the gun to a relative’s friend, who refused to give the gun back. That relative later told police that he subsequently gave the gun to Blue a few days before Blue’s murder.
On March 18 of this year, police received the results of a DNA analysis that showed that the DNA sample found on the rear passenger side exterior door handle of Blue’s car was “at least 2.9 million times more likely to occur” if it came from the 26-year-old Cassius Street suspect.
And so, based on the cellphone records pointing to the suspect calling and receiving calls from Blue’s cellphone the night of the murder; the surveillance footage showing someone receiving a call on Cedar Street at the same time that Blue made a call the night of his murder; and the finding of the gun that Blue had been trying to sell in the Cassius Street suspect’s apartment, among other evidence, police arrested the suspect on charges of felony murder, criminal possession of a firearm, and carrying a pistol without a permit.