Maia Nehme, Contributing Photographer

City police are investigating a Monday night double homicide 10 minutes away from Morse and Ezra Stiles colleges, at Goffe and Winter streets.

The New Haven Police Department received three 9-1-1 calls alerting them to gunshots and injured people in the road at 9:50 p.m., Police Chief Karl Jacobson said at a Tuesday press conference. When officers responded to the scene two minutes after the calls, they found two men “laying in the street unresponsive with gunshot wounds,” according to a NHPD press release. New Havener Clifford Capehart, 49, died at the scene, while Hamden resident Keron Troutman, 39, was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital and succumbed to his injuries later that night.

Capehart and Troutman were friends, Jacobson added at the press conference. Police believe the men were involved in a robbery or a “drug deal gone bad,” as officers found some “drug evidence” on the scene. Neither of the men were carrying weapons, so officers believe there is at least one shooter still at large.

“I talked to Capehart’s mother last night, who was obviously visibly shaken,” Jacobson said. “Our condolences go out to both families, and we’re going to do everything possible to find out who did this.”

Jacobson emphasized that the investigation is ongoing, although the NHPD has been “getting good response from the community so far.” 

After police finished reviewing the area of the shooting, the New Haven Fire Department was dispatched around 3:41 a.m. to clean up the scene. Firefighters returned to the scene around 9:30 a.m. to finish cleaning up, according to NHPD spokesperson Officer Christian Bruckhart.

“Unfortunately, it’s dark,” Bruckhart said. “They missed something. It’s tough.”

According to the NHPD’s most recently published crime data, as of March 23, New Haven had had two murders in 2025.