Shortly after 1:40 a.m. on August 24, 2025, 25-year-old Niajae Vernon was fatally shot at the convenience store and gas station at 3250 Main Street in Hartford. Officers arriving after multiple 911 calls found Vernon unresponsive with at least one gunshot wound; he was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Initial reports place the first calls from the 3000 block of Main Street around 1:42–1:45 a.m.

Investigators say surveillance shows Vernon arriving around 1:40 a.m. and being approached by two men who exited a black SUV as he returned to his car. Detectives believe the confrontation was an attempted robbery over a gold chain and that Vernon was shot in the chest. Police recovered an iPhone that fell from a shooter’s pocket; the phone was traced to 22-year-old Courtney Byrd and DNA from the phone and from a rain gutter the shooter touched is reported to link Byrd to the scene. Byrd was arrested in October and charged with murder and carrying a pistol without a permit; he was held on a $950,000 bond.

Who has information about Vernon’s movements that night or who remembers the black SUV in the area?