Police: 1 killed in Hartford shooting

A 22-year-old was fatally shot in Hartford late Wednesday, police said. It is the 34th homicide of the year in the capital city.

Police received a Shotspotter alert of a shooting in the area of 27 Enfield St. about 11:20 p.m., but when officers arrived, they did not find any evidence of gunfire, they said. About a half-hour later, a resident called police saying a gunshot victim had been found behind 158 Magnolia St., a block away, in the Upper Albany neighborhood.

Officers and medics responded and tried to save the man, but he died at the hospital, police said.

Police later identified the man as Devonte Downer of Laurel Street in the city.

Downer was located directly across the street from the home where 16-year-old Ja’mari Preston

was gunned down April 10, two hours later and less than a mile away from where 3-year-old Randell Jones was shot inside his mother’s car outside a North End store. The two shootings sparked hours of chaos across the neighborhood that day and officers found about 75 shell casings, including rifle rounds, scattered at the scene of Preston’s death from various weapons.

Police have arrested two young men in connection with the toddler’s death but to date have made no arrests in connection with the teen’s killing. Officials did not indicate Downer’s death was connected in any way to the previous shootings other than the proximity of where Downer and Preston were found, months apart.

He is the 33rd homicide victim in the capital city this year, not including the man who was fatally shot by members of a federal task force Jan. 6. City police only count the homicides they investigate.

Hartford has now passed its recent highs of 32 murders in 2015 and 33 in 2009. It is expected to record one of its deadliest years in decades, with the possible exception of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when gang wars raged in the city, and 2003, when a nursing home fire killed 16 in one night.

Other cities in the state and across the nation have seen a similar increase in murders, and some have suggested a lack of services during the coronavirus pandemic played a role.

Investigators continue to investigate the homicide. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hartford police tip line at 860-722-8477 (TIPS).