On the evening of August 15, 2020, 28-year-old DayShon Smith was fatally shot on Rosette Street in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood during a gathering that was reportedly a vigil for an earlier homicide victim. The shooting wounded five others — two women and three men — and involved what prosecutors described as a chaotic melee in which roughly 40 shots were fired. Smith, a Black man and an amateur boxer, was remembered by family and his trainer as driven, quiet and respectful, and someone who helped raise his younger brothers after losing both parents.

No one has been charged in Smith’s death. Authorities have identified a person of interest: 26-year-old Denzel Suggs was arrested on a federal firearms charge tied to an altercation that prosecutors say escalated after someone tried to hit Suggs with a bottle and he fired a gun. Suggs has not been named a suspect in Smith’s killing; the investigation remains active.