Sophie Sonnenfeld

A Monday shooting in Dixwell resulted in the deaths of two Connecticut residents, marking four people killed by gunfire in New Haven in just over the span of a week.

A New Haven Police Department press release published Wednesday identified the two men killed on Dickerman Street as Daiquan Hyman, 26, of East Haven and Ernest Williams, 32, of New Haven.

New Haven police officers responded to a report of two men having been shot at about 2:12 p.m. Monday, according to the department’s press release. Officers found that both men were unresponsive and transported them to Yale New Haven Hospital. Hyman and Williams died there, the press release said.

The press release said an early investigation had found “an altercation occurred between a group of men,” whose argument “escalated into a fight prior to the shooting.”

Bruckhart told the News that the shooting does not appear to be related to any neighborhood groups or disputes — nor the previous shootings of 18-year-old Dillon Cornelius on Aug. 17 and 40-year-old Dennis Atkinson on Aug. 18.

Cornelius, who was from West Haven, was shot on College Street between Crown and Chapel Streets at around 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17, according to a press release from the police department that day. Cornelius was brought to the hospital and later died.

The gunfire on College Street also hit a 23-year-old man from Hamden, who was treated for a non-life-threatening wound, the press release said. The victims did not know each other, Bruckhart said.

The shooting seemed to be an isolated act of violence associated with an ongoing dispute between two neighborhood groups, Bruckhart said.

“There are feuds from different sides of the city,” Bruckhart said. “They meet downtown and violence erupts.”

New Haven Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli told the New Haven Independent that the department is working with Project Longevity, a gun violence prevention program, to identify the people involved in the incident.

“Dillon just graduated and was about to go college,” Cornelius’ mother, Kelli Jones, wrote on Facebook.

Dennis Atkinson of New Haven was shot and killed the following day — Monday, Aug. 18 — around 4:44 a.m. near Ferry and River Streets in Fair Haven, according to a press release from the police department.

Following an alert from ShotSpotter, an audio-based gunshot detection technology, New Haven police officers responded to the scene and encountered an unresponsive Atkinson riddled with several gunshot wounds, according to a press release from the police.

He was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital and later succumbed to his injuries, the press release said.

A second shooting the same morning, at approximately 7:30 a.m., took place at 300 Shelton Ave. in Newhallville, according to the news release. A 31-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to the leg was brought to Yale New Haven Hospital. Police have not released the name of the victim, whose injuries were deemed non life-threatening.

The two Aug. 18 shootings were not linked, Bruckhart said.

There were eight homicides in New Haven in 2024, a nearly 43 percent decrease from the year before, according to an Aug. 10 report documenting homicides, shootings and shots fired over the past decade.

Confirmed shots fired were also down by 44.4 percent, though non-fatal shooting victims rose by 18.2 percent.

At the time of the report’s publication, there had been eight homicides in New Haven in 2025. That number has since risen to 12, with confirmed shots fired and non-fatal shooting victims yet to be updated.

No arrests had been made by Thursday in connection with the four shooting deaths.