Natosha Gaines, a 44-year-old Black woman from New Haven who was a mother and grandmother, was shot dead inside the Quinnipiac Avenue apartment she shared with her boyfriend on the night of October 17, 2020. Emergency responders arrived about 11:43 p.m. to find Gaines with a fatal gunshot wound. The 911 caller was her 52-year-old boyfriend, Anthony Valeriano, who told police he had been cleaning a replica 1851 Navy 44-caliber black powder revolver kept for self-defense and that he tripped, causing the trigger to slip and the gun to discharge. His 12-year-old son was reportedly present at the scene.

The Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide. The medical examiner reported the firearm was in direct contact with or in very close proximity to Gaines’s head when it was fired, a detail that conflicted with Valeriano’s account. New Haven detectives spent ten months on the Major Crimes investigation and concluded a reckless act by Valeriano led to the fatal shot. On July 20, 2021, Valeriano was arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter with a firearm; bond was set at one million dollars. Gaines’s parents publicly thanked investigators and described the arrest as a small piece of closure.

Did anyone in the neighborhood or anyone who knew Natosha notice anything unusual about the apartment or the people who lived there around October 17, 2020?