HARTFORD — A Hartford man was arrested Thursday and charged with the fatal shooting of one man in June of 2008 and then using the same gun to kill two more men in an unrelated incident two months later.
Harold Patterson, 34, of Florence Street, was arrested as a result of an investigation by the Cold Case Unit of the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney, along with Hartford Police.
Patterson is charged with three counts of murder in the shooting death of Raymond “Flip” Hite on June 5, on Acton Street in Hartford and the unrelated shooting deaths of Lamar Gresham and Carlos Ortiz on August 25 on Edwards Street in Hartford.
According to the arrest warrant, Hite, 34, had been shot multiple times when police found him lying in the street just before 12:30 a.m. He died a short time later at Hartford Hospital.
Gresham, 21, and Ortiz, 23, were found wounded around 3:15 a.m. in a drive-by shooting as they were walking along Edwards Street. Both died later that morning at Hartford Hospital.
According to the arrest warrants, subsequent investigation determined that shell casings found at the scene of all three homicides were fired from the same gun, which was also linked to two other shooting incidents in Hartford in June and August of 2008. The gun has not been recovered, according to the warrant.
The homicides of Gresham and Ortiz were featured on the five of clubs card in the third edition of the cold case playing cards produced in conjunction with the Department of Correction and sold to inmates in the Connecticut corrections system.
Patterson was arrested by members of the U.S. Marshal’s Office and Hartford Police Violent Fugitive Task Force, and is being held on a total of $3 million bond and will be arraigned Friday, December 9 in Hartford Superior Court.
