On the afternoon of Sunday, February 23, 2020, 18-year-old Dashown Tyrese Myers was fatally shot inside an apartment at the Quinnipiac Ridge Apartments on Quinnipiac Avenue in New Haven. Police responded to reports of gunfire at about 3:48 p.m. and found Myers with a gunshot wound; he was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital and pronounced dead. His death was reported as the city’s first homicide of 2020.

Dashown was a former Wilbur Cross High School student and a talented football player. Family and friends remembered him for a million dollar smile, his devotion to church activities as a youth, and aspirations for the future. The family said he had begun associating with the wrong crowd in his teens but was working to turn his life around when he was killed. The community held candlelight vigils and his mother, Laquvia Jones, publicly pleaded for no retaliation.

The New Haven Police Department continued to seek information and, as of the time of these reports, no arrests had been announced and no suspects identified. If anyone has information that could help solve Dashown’s killing, please come forward.