Second suspect arrested in Hartford murder case

Man held in Texas in August killing of Zayon Collier

A second suspect was arrested Friday in connection with the killing of 25-year-old Zayon Collier, whose death in August was among a series of murders that devastated a tight-knit Hartford community.

George “Burger” Rodriguez, 27, of Hartford, was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals in Texas, where he is being held as a fugitive and awaiting extradition back to Connecticut, Hartford police announced Friday afternoon. Rodriguez faces charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and criminal possession of a firearm.

Police made their first arrest in Collier’s murder last week, when they charged Mark Outlaw, 22, of Hartford, with accessory to murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection to Collier’s killing.

Investigators believe Collier was killed in his Blue Hills Avenue apartment in Hartford’s Upper Albany neighborhood in the early morning of Aug. 4, the night before he was supposed to serve as a pallbearer at the funeral of his friend, 21-year-old Brian Oliver, who had been murdered in his home a few blocks away just weeks earlier, the Courant reported last week.

Hartford police responding to reports of property damage arrived at Collier’s apartment building around noon on Aug. 4 and noted gunfire damage on the stairs, walls, railings and ceiling, as well as eight spent .223 shell casings in the hallway near Collier’s apartment, according to police records. Police entered the apartment to find Collier dead from gunshot wounds.

A witness interviewed by the police reported seeing a silver BMW pull up at Collier’s building on the night of his death and two men, one with a black rifle, exit the vehicle, according to records. The witness watched the men enter the building through a side door, heard gunshots and then watched them drive away in the same car.

Surveillance footage recovered by the police tracks the BMW traveling south on Blue Hills Avenue around 12:32 a.m. on Aug. 4, speeding east through the North End about 10 minutes later and then arriving in Windsor, records show. Within that period, at 12:41 a.m., a 911 caller reported gunfire near Collier’s apartment and gunshots were picked up by a ShotSpotter in the area. (Police canvassed the area at that time, but said they did not find gunfire damage.)

The next day, police found the silver BMW in Upper Albany and Outlaw in it. They arrested him for an outstanding warrant. Outlaw told police that on the night of the killing, he stayed at a Motel 6 in Windsor Locks, although hotel staff working that night later told police that they had never seen him.

Police received a tip that Rodriguez had also been involved in the murder and was staying at the Rodeway Inn and Suites in East Windsor, records show. Video footage from that area show that just past midnight on the day of Collier’s killing, Outlaw’s car was parked outside the hotel and Rodriguez got into the car carrying a rifleshaped object hidden under a towel. The two returned to the hotel an hour later.

Later that day, Outlaw and Rodriguez left the hotel, Rodriguez holding a black rifle, and drove away in the same car, records show. Police determined that the weapon he carried was consistent with a rifle capable of firing .223 rounds, the same as the casings found in Collier’s apartment.

Collier’s murder this past summer was the fourth in a series of killings within the same group of close family and friends in Upper Albany. The shootings, which occurred across just two months, were apparently unrelated, according to police records.

On June 9, Trelique Ward, 22, was killed in a shootout on Kent Street. Aubrey Perry, 35, who opened fire on Ward during an apparent busted drug deal, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and criminal possession of a firearm, and remains in custody in lieu of a $1.25 million bond.

Six weeks later, 21-yearold Brian Oliver, whose funeral Collier had planned to serve as a pallbearer for, was fatally shot on Irving Street. Earlier this month, police arrested Joshua White, 21, in connection to Oliver’s killing and charged him with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and a series of weapons offenses.

Two weeks later, Collier was killed — and days after his murder, on Aug. 9, after an evening planning Collier’s funeral, members of his extended family got into a fight, resulting in the death of 29-year-old Troy Reid. Reid’s brother-in-law, Tanoah Jones, 35, admitted to police that he shot Reid during an argument over whether Reid may have been involved in Collier’s death. Jones was charged with murder.