Richard Whitaker Jr., 21, was shot and killed in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood on the evening of June 15, 2021. Police responded to multiple 911 calls and a ShotSpotter alert near Columbus Avenue at about 8:24 p.m. and found Whitaker with a gunshot wound; he was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital and pronounced dead. Known to friends as G Rich, he was a Black/African American young man, a father, and had studied plumbing at Eli Whitney Technical High School with plans to enroll in college.

His family described him as loving and goofy with a bright smile. Less than a year earlier, his older brother Day’Shon Smith, a local boxer, had been shot and killed in the same neighborhood; Richard reportedly stood next to his brother when that earlier shooting occurred.

Did anyone in the Hill neighborhood see or hear anything that night that could help explain what happened to Richard?