North Carolina man convicted of triple homicide in Hamden and New Haven in 2015 gun deal

A federal jury in Bridgeport found a North Carolina man guilty of three murders in Hamden and New Haven in a 2015 gun deal gone awry after a several-day trial.

Edward Michael Parks, known as “Lee” and “Trouble” of Raleigh, N.C., a reputed “highranking” member of the Bloods street gang, was accused of kidnapping and killing two men after two other men left a New Haven apartment without paying for guns, court documents stated. Parks then killed a third man who became “anxious” about the first two homicides, federal authorities said.

“The Justice Department has prioritized the disruption of illegal gun trafficking across the United States, and this prosecution serves as yet another reminder of the scourge of illegal guns and violence in our communities,” said Connecticut U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery, who also called the murders “cold-blooded” in a statement issued after the verdict. “The victims of this heinous crime, and their loved ones, are in my thoughts.”

The killings occurred on Nov. 16, 2015 as Parks was conducting illegal firearms sales from the bedroom of a New Haven apartment, court documents said. Witnesses told investigators he had laid out a variety of firearms on the bed “to display for sale,” court documents stated.

When two people left the apartment with guns but didn’t pay, Parks became angry and kidnapped Damian Connor and Tamar Lawrence at gunpoint in an attempt to force them to call the individuals back to either pay or return the weapons, court documents said.

He then stole their valuables and forced them to drive to Mix Avenue in Hamden where he shot the two men in the head, federal authorities said.

The car was being followed by another vehicle with Devante Williams and an individual who was not named by federal authorities, court documents said. Parks left the scene with Williams and others in the second vehicle and then returned to New Haven, court documents said.

When Parks thought Williams was “anxious” about the killings of Connor and Lawrence he shot and killed Williams in the area of Sherman Court in New Haven, federal authorities said.

Connor and Lawrence were discovered dead inside a vehicle on Mix Avenue in Hamden the next morning by an employee

of the apartment complex, court documents said. New Haven police responding to a report of gunfire and a man chasing another person on Nov. 16, 2015 located Williams’ body a distance away behind a building on Sherman Court, court documents said.

Parks was charged by federal agents from Connecticut working with Hamden and New Haven police in 2019. A jury in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport found him guilty Thursday of two counts of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of witness tampering by killing after a 10day trial. Parks faces life imprisonment when he is sentenced.