One man dead after shootings in Hartford

A Hartford man who was shot Sunday, one of two separate shootings in the city, died Monday, police said.

Javier Hernandez-jiminian, 34, of 5 Mary Shepard Place, was found shot in the area of 493 Park St. at about 8 p.m. Hernandez-jiminian was taken to an area hospital, where he later died, police said.

The other shooting was reported at about 6:47 p.m. at 256 Mather St. Officers found evidence of gunfire, and while they were at the scene, a man in his 30s arrived at an area hospital suffering from gunshot wounds, which police said were not life-threatening.

The shootings are not related, police spokesman Lt. Aaron Boisvert said Monday. Anyone with information is asked to call the department tip line at 860-722-TIPS (8477).

In the first four months of 2022, 11 people were fatally shot in the city — up 22% from this time in 2021 and 2020 when nine people were killed by gunfire by the end of April, according to police.

The number of non-fatal shootings recorded between January and April each year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has stayed about the same. There were 35 in the first four months of 2022 and 36 in the first four months of 202, according to police data. However, the spike in homicides in the years since the start of the pandemic is evident.

In 2019, the city had 147 shootings, 21 of them fatal. In 2020, when Connecticut residents spent months in state-ordered lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of shootings rose dramatically, with 232 shootings, 25 of them fatal.

According to studies by the Council for Criminal Justice, which analyzed data from police departments in 34 American cities to review the impact of the pandemic on crime rates, homicides spiked significantly in 2020, as did gun assaults. Homicide rates were 30% higher than in 2019 across the cities.