On the afternoon of January 19, 2025, 26-year-old Raviteja Koyyada was shot while making a food delivery to a Shepard Street address in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood. Police say the shooting occurred during an apparent attempted carjacking; Koyyada was found unresponsive in the roadway, taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital and pronounced dead. His car was later recovered parked and unoccupied nearby. The city recorded this as New Haven’s first homicide of 2025.

Koyyada had moved from Hyderabad, India, to the U.S. in 2022 and had recently earned a master’s degree in computer science from Sacred Heart University. He was delivering food for a Chinese restaurant that day and had future plans to bring his parents to the United States and marry later in 2025. Investigators traced the order that led him to Shepard Street and say the order had been placed by a person with a female voice. A 9 mm handgun recovered in a warranted search was matched to the shooting, and DNA on the weapon was matched to 21-year-old Lashae Moore, who was later arrested and charged in connection with the killing.

A memorial service for Koyyada was held at Sacred Heart University and his family in India issued a public appeal for justice. If anyone has information about the shooting or saw activity on Shepard Street that afternoon, please come forward.