HARTFORD – Hartford Police are investigating another fatal shooting in the city. This one comes after an unusually violent week, and as the city prepares to welcome tens of thousands for a night where concerts, sporting events, and a fireworks festival all coincide.
Police were called to the area of Main Street and Mahl Avenue just before 11 p.m. Friday night. They found a male victim who had been shot. A short time later they said the shooting investigation had become a homicide investigation. Major Crime Division and Crime Scene detectives were called to the scene, but no other information has been released.
The deadly shooting comes as Hartford Police prepare for an estimated 65,000 people attending multiple events in the city tonight, including a Hartford Athletic soccer game at the renovated Dillon Stadium, a Hartford Yard Goats baseball game during their popular “Whalers Weekend”, the annual Riverfront Fireworks, and performances by Cirque du Soleil. The Hartford Police Department says they will have an unprecedented 300 officers on the streets for traffic control and security.
Thousands will attend a concert featuring Wiz Khalifa at the XFINITY Theatre. The amphitheater is located a little more than a quarter of a mile from the shooting scene as the crow flies, but in practicality, it’s cut off from the neighborhood multiple lines of railroad tracks.
The location of Friday night’s fatal shooting is almost in the same spot where another person was gunned down Monday night, near 1994 Main Street. The advocacy group Mothers United Against Violence has scheduled an anti-violence vigil at that spot for Saturday evening.
