July is Hartford's deadliest month in more than four years

A killing on Hillside Avenue late Wednesday night marks the city’s sixth homicide in July and makes it the deadliest month in Hartford in more than four years, a Courant review of city data show. Late Wednesday night, Yowseph Cruz, 25, was eating at a home on Hillside Avenue, when a car drove by and opened fire on the house, killing him. Lt. Paul Cicero, head of the department’s Major Crimes Division, said there were no indications that the deadly shooting was connected to any of the other five homicides this month.

The spike in violence had already drawn attention to the city this summer. On Tuesday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced additional state resources would go to help the city tackle the problem. New Haven and Bridgeport also were also offered state assistance as they grapple with similar violence.

City police data show the last time six people were killed in homicides was May 2015 — a year that would prove to be one of the most violent in recent years with 31 homicides. In July of last year, the city reported one homicide.

“This has been a hard month for the city of Hartford,” Mayor Luke Bronin said during a public police Compstat meeting Thursday. "Most of all for the loved ones and families and friends of those who lost their lives in gun violence, for the community as a whole, for the neighborhoods where these shootings have taken place.”

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