On Tuesday afternoon, November 19, 2024, 4-month-old Messiah Diaz and his 20-year-old mother, Jessiah Mercado, were killed in a targeted drive-by shooting near Hillside Avenue and Zion Street in Hartford, Connecticut. A man in his 20s who was with them suffered non-life-threatening injuries; the driver of their vehicle was unhurt.

Police identified 23-year-old Lance Macho Morales of Waterbury as a suspect after reviewing surveillance footage and receiving tips. Authorities say the shooting arose from an ongoing dispute over a car between Morales and Mercado. Morales’s last known vehicle was a white Infiniti Q70 with Massachusetts plates, later found abandoned in Waterbury.

U.S. Marshals apprehended Morales in the Fardo region of Puerto Rico; he was charged as a fugitive and faces two counts of murder, murder with special circumstances, first-degree assault, and criminal possession of a firearm, with bond set at $3 million. Messiah Diaz had been in foster care in Massachusetts, and that state’s Department of Children and Families opened an inquiry into how he came to be in Connecticut with his biological mother.

If anyone has information about the shooting or knew Messiah, Jessiah, or the circumstances leading up to November 19, please come forward.