In the early morning hours of August 6, 2023, 23-year-old William Tisdol was killed in a targeted, ambush-style shooting on Sterling Street in Hartford. Tisdol and 27-year-old Hakeem Dickson were on a porch when multiple gunshots rang out; both men suffered gunshot wounds and were found by officers after a ShotSpotter activation. Tisdol was pronounced dead at the scene; Dickson was taken to a hospital and later died.

Authorities say there were likely three shooters and that investigators have been pursuing what they described as very good leads, but no suspects have been publicly identified and no arrests related to the double homicide have been announced. The shooting occurred the same weekend as another fatal Hartford shooting that police say is unrelated.

Tisdol’s death came amid a family history of gun violence: his father, also William Tisdol, was killed in an officer-involved shooting in Springfield, Massachusetts months earlier; William had been seriously wounded in a 2020 shooting at the same Sterling Street location; his brother was involved in a 2017 police shooting and is incarcerated; and William had been released from federal prison in May. Anyone with information about the Sterling Street ambush is asked to come forward.