10 years later, fatal city shooting of woman unsolved

NEW HAVEN — Ashley Armstrong’s life was cut short at the age of 20 when a gunman opened fire on her car in the city’s Newhallville neighborhood.

It’s been 10 years since that fateful night, and 10 years without answers for the loved ones of the Danbury woman, known for her bright smile, positive attitude and comforting nature.

“She was such a ball of sunshine,” said her cousin, Danbury resident Steven Armstrong. “She could be going through the roughest times in life but still find a way to laugh, smile and make sure people around her were comfortable.”

Although it’s been a decade since her death, he said it’s still hard to believe someone he was so close to and thought of like a sister is no longer here.

Ashley Armstrong was killed May 16, 2012, after a gunman opened fire on the black Volkswagen Jetta she was driving near the intersection of Shelton Avenue and Munson Street around 12:20 a.m.

The 2009 Danbury High School graduate was in New Haven visiting friends the night she was killed, according to police, who said the gunman shot at her car minutes after it turned onto Shelton Avenue.

“I was told that they had to park on the side of the street to type in a location to get back home, and it happened in a matter of minutes of them doing that,” Steven Armstrong said.

At the scene, officers found Ashley Armstrong slumped over in the driver’s seat. Police said she was shot several times and transported to the Hospital of St. Raphael, where she was pronounced dead at 12:27 a.m.

Steven Armstrong said he remembers that night “like it was yesterday.”

“A close friend of mine called at like 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning and was like, ‘I have to come pick you up. Ashley’s in the hospital,’ and I was like, ‘What do you mean Ashley’s in the hospital?’” he said.

About 30 or 45 minutes later, Steven Armstrong said he learned his cousin had died.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

Sgt. Bertram Ettienne from the New Haven Police Department said police do not believe Ashley Armstrong was the intended target of the shooting.

“We have no reason to believe she was based on what evidence revealed then and now,” he told Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday.

Ettienne said he worked with the original detective on Armstrong’s case, Michael Wuchek, “at various points throughout the investigation” prior to Wuchek’s retirement three or four years ago.

Five shell casings were recovered at the scene, he said, and although there were cameras in the area, none of them “captured the incident itself.”

Police said there were three passengers in Ashley Armstrong’s car at the time of the shooting, but none of them were injured.

As to whether any of them were intended targets, Ettienne said that’s “still in question.”

“We cannot definitively say that they were or they were not,” he said.

Steven Armstrong said he knew two passengers in the car and spoke to both of them after the shooting.

“They said they heard the gunshots but didn’t see anyone outside the car,” he said. “It was dark outside and there were barely any streetlights.”

At the time of her death, Ashley Armstrong was a nursing student at Naugatuck Valley Community College and worked as a certified nursing assistant at Ridgefield’s Laurel Ridge Health Care Center and Danbury’s Synergy Home

Care.

“She loved to take care of people and she had a knack for it,” Steven Armstrong

said. “To this day, it’s still shocking to think that you can be doing so well, moving forward with life and then it’s just cut short because you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Police still investigating

Ashley Armstrong’s homicide may be deemed a “cold case” by the state, but Ettienne said he nor the New Haven Police Department classify it that way.

“You don’t want to say to a family member that their loved one’s case is ‘cold,’ because that gives the impression that no one’s looking at it, no one cares and there’s no hope for it,” he said.

Ettienne has not only worked homicides for several years, but knows what it’s like to lose a loved one to a senseless act of violence. His sister was the victim of a homicide.

“What I will typically say to families is, ‘At this point, there’s no new leads,’ because it’s not that the case is cold, on a shelf and no one cares about it,” he said. “Detectives are always looking for new information and asking people if they have any.”

Ettienne said one thing Armstrong’s case has in common with hundreds of

New Haven’s other unsolved homicides is lack of cooperation.

“Detective Wuchek conducted some very crucial interviews, and the lack of cooperation from people who may have information — whether they were involved or not — would be the reason why this case has not yet been solved,” he said.

Unfortunately, Ettienne said, lack of cooperation is not unusual.

“Whether it’s the Ashley Armstrong case or another homicide, the police cannot effectively investigate these cases without the help of the community,” he said.

“If we don’t have their involvement, these cases will continue to be stagnant.”

Ettienne said public involvement is “a necessary ingredient” in the investigative process.

“We cannot do it without them. Information is like our fuel and if we don’t have that, we can’t do anything,” he said. “There seems to be a belief that police can just do it, but we cannot do it by ourselves.”

Steven Armstrong said he would ask anyone with information about his cousin’s death to share what they know.

“It would help me and my family get closure,” he said. “We just want to know what happened and who was a part of it. That’s literally all we want. We just want that closure so we can find some peace.”

With or without it, though, Steven Armstrong said he’s going to keep staying positive and moving forward.

“The chapter isn’t closed yet and it’s still heartbreaking, but you have to,” he said.

Anyone with information about the homicide of Ashley Armstrong should contact the New Haven Police Department TIPS Hotline at 1-866-888-8477.

They can also text a tip to 274637 with “NHPD” in the beginning of the message, call the state’s Cold Case Unit tip line at 860-548-0606 or 1-866-623-8058, or send a tip my mail to Cold Case Unit, P.O. Box 962, Rocky Hill, CT 06067.

Contributed photo Ashley Armstrong