After three homicides in recent days, including a 31-year-old man Wednesday night and two kids shot to death last Saturday, Hartford Police are ramping up their efforts to stem the tide of gun violence in the city.
Just after 11:00 Wednesday night, Hartford Police were called to 65 Babcock Street, where a gunshot victim was found behind his house in a car.
Hartford's 9th homicide victim of the year is 31-year-old Heriberto Garcia, who died at a local hospital after being shot in the chest.
"This was a very, very personal dispute between two people inside of a car behind a building," said Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody.
Daniel Lopez, 29, of East Hartford, was charged with murder and remains help on $1.5 million bond, pending his Friday arraignment.
"Our officers, at this point, are taking this very personally that these things are occurring," Thody added.
He reports there is no new information on the Saturday shooting deaths of three-year-old Randell Jones, Jr. and 16-year-old Ja'mari Preston, although the Chief is hoping to make some significant announcements on those cases sometime this week.
"We have a tremendous amount of information that we gathered especially in those first 48 hours," Thody said. "A little bit more information came in subsequent to each of the vigils."
That is due in part to the fact that HPD always has investigators attend vigils.
"That's because sometimes people do want to talk to law enforcement," the Chief said. "They’re not really sure how to initiate that. They don’t necessarily want to pick up a phone but if they bump into us at a vigil, they will have some things to say."
And whenever there is an uptick in gun violence, Hartford Police team up with federal and state partners to make visits to several dozen key people, as they have this week.
The Chief said, "They had a list of 50 people that they went out and spoke to this week and these are individuals that we know you know either have a propensity for violence" or may have some connection either to victims or suspects in active cases.
"And our message to them is just look we know what’s going on and we’re keeping an eye on you specifically."
A couple of wins for Hartford Police last night. In one incident, they confiscated a stolen gun. In another, they seized a gun from a convicted felon, charging him with criminal possession of a firearm.
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