Ximena Solorzano, Head Photography Editor

City police will be amping up their downtown presence after a Halloween weekend shooting killed one person and injured three others, city officials said at a Thursday afternoon press conference. 

Norwich resident Alexa Acevedo, 18, was shot and killed on Nov. 1, according to a press release. At approximately 2:34 a.m., New Haven police officers responded to reports of gunfire at Church and Center Streets, where they identified Acevedo, another 18-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man suffering from gunshot wounds. 

Acevedo was pronounced dead soon after city police arrived on the scene. Acevedo was the third teenager killed in New Haven since August. Her death also marks the fifteenth homicide in New Haven so far this year. 

A second 21-year-old man later arrived at Yale New Haven Hospital by private vehicle with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound from the shooting, according to the press release. The other 18-year-old woman injured in the shooting is currently receiving treatment, New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said at Thursday’s press conference. The New Haven Register reported Wednesday that both men were treated for their injuries and released. 

The four people were a part of a 7,000- to 10,000-person crowd that was downtown for Halloween, said Jacobson at the press conference. 40 officers, including plainclothes officers, were on duty and stationed downtown that night. City police also deployed a drone for the duration of the night.

“We have seen a lot, a big influx of people from out of town coming into New Haven,” Jacobson said. “We see people coming into the area, going to younger establishments, 18-and-over establishments, and then getting in fights afterwards, leading to gunfire.”

Jacobson explained that city police have “set things up to work towards keeping downtown safer.” They will establish “stronger presence prior to the bar detail” that will include traffic enforcement early in the night. For future events that tend to attract large crowds — including Halloween, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve — city police will set up preparation plans similar to those used for road races, calling in officers ahead of time to “prevent these incidents.”

At least 20 officers will be assigned downtown on Friday and Saturday this coming weekend, including uniformed officers and detectives, Officer Christian Bruckhart, a spokesperson for the police department, wrote in a text message.

City police have also enlisted the support of the Connecticut state police violent crime task force and the regional task force used to identify stolen cars to aid their efforts. 

“Come downtown and have fun, but do not come downtown bringing chaos and weapons and everything else,” Jacobson said.

Speaking about the string of homicides of young people this year, Mayor Justin Elicker described the phenomenon as “deeply concerning and disturbing.”

“I think there’s a number of reasons that this is occurring now. Some of it is because we lost some good opportunities to continue to connect with our youth during COVID,” Elicker said in a phone interview. “We slowed, across the nation, a lot of our active, in-person engagement with youth.”

Elicker highlighted the city’s multi-pronged approach to connecting with young people to “confront the challenge” of youth violence. Young people arrested for stealing vehicles are provided with resources and support to rehabilitate them, Elicker said. Initiatives like Youth Connect, the Police Activity League — which promotes sports engagement — and the city’s provision of $3 million in tutoring funding also aim to support young people and prevent their involvement with “negative activities.”

Regarding downtown nightclubs, Elicker said New Haven is attempting to regulate 18- to 21-year-old establishments that operate under state statute as “juice bars” without the license to serve alcohol. The legal technicality means that those establishments can serve as nightclubs that offer parties for young people that have become the site of some of the recent shooting incidents.

“Having thousands of 18- to 21-year-olds coming downtown is not fair where there’s the potential for violence,” Elicker said.

Last year, on Nov. 1, 2024, four people between the ages of 19 to 22 were also injured in a shooting downtown.