New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Chief IDs George St. homicide victim, 44
NEW HAVEN — Acting Chief of Police Renee Dominguez identified the victim in Tuesday’s early-morning homicide on George Street as Jack Hopeton, 44, with a last known address in Waterbury, and called the recent rise in shootings — both in New Haven and across the country — “a tragic turn of events.”
She said the uptick in gun violence comes despite the fact that the city has seized seven guns since Thursday and has taken 191 guns off the street so far in 2021.
“We are asking for the help of the community,” Dominguez said.
Hopeton, originally from New
York, had family ties to New Haven, she said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation of the shooting — the city’s 11th homicide of 2021 — which took place shortly before 6 a.m. on George near Orchard Street, “is still in the very early stages,” Dominguez said. She asked anybody who may have any information on what happened to call the city’s detective bureau at 203-9466304 or its toll-free tip line at 1-866-888TIPS.
Mayor Justin Elicker, who joined Dominguez and Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson at a 3 p.m. press conference in front of police headquarters, said “the city of New Haven’s clearly going through a very tough time . ... These past few days, we’ve had a number of tragic incidents,” including “a couple of homicides” and several shootings, Elicker said.
Dominguez said she had no immediate update on a Saturday homicide. In that case, Mariyah Inthirath, 20, died after suffering a single gunshot wound, according to New Haven Police Department spokesman Officer Scott Shumway.
The city also had another shooting, at 1:28 Tuesday morning, with a male victim found at Putnam and Cedar streets; and a previous shooting at about 11 a.m. Monday, a 20-year old man shot in the leg on Woodward Avenue, Dominguez said.
Elicker said the Police Department and the city already were responding to the uptick in gun violence in a number of ways, both with short-term measures and longer-term ones to stem the causes of the shootings.
“Our strategy for addressing it ... incorporates a number of different initiatives,” including “a component that is law enforcement-based, a component that is violence interruption and a component that is rehabilitation,” Elicker said.
Those will include creation of a new shooting task force, increased outreach in the communities and use of the city’s new drop-in reentry center to provide additional support and resources for people coming out of prison, he said.
“I go to every wake. I speak to family members,” Elicker said. “... The homicides are destroying our community . ... The violence has to stop.”
Jacobson said the Police Department will be beefing up its Gun Crime Intel Center and soon will have the ability to get results matching guns to those previously used in crimes in 24-72 hours, where it currently takes about two months.
“This unit has been working,” Jacobson said. “It’s just going to be increasing in size.”
The gun crime task force already has two Yale University police officers working with two city officers and two city detectives and is in the process of hammering out agreements to add officers from West Haven, East Haven, Hamden and Meriden, Jacobson said.
“New Haven’s not an island,” said Elicker. “We need to work together” to stem the increased gun violence, he said.