Diana Tirado, a 46-year-old woman from New Britain, was killed during a double shooting on Magnolia Street in Hartford on the evening of June 17, 2026. Although some records list June 18 as the date of her death, police reports indicate that she was pronounced dead at the scene on June 17. At approximately 7 p.m., Hartford officers were dispatched to the 100 block of Magnolia Street after the city’s ShotSpotter system detected gunfire in the area.
When officers arrived, they found
Tirado unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a parked vehicle. She had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and could not be saved. A second woman, who was in her 30s, was discovered nearby on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound. Emergency personnel transported that woman to an area hospital, where she was reported to be in stable condition.
An 11-year-old girl who was related to Tirado reportedly witnessed the shooting from another parked vehicle only a few feet away. The child was not physically injured, but her presence led investigators to pursue a risk-of-injury charge in addition to the charges connected to the two shooting victims. Authorities described the incident as domestic violence-related, although detailed information about the circumstances leading up to the gunfire was not immediately released.
Hartford police identified Chad Petitpas of Uncasville as the suspected gunman. Detectives prepared an arrest warrant charging him with murder, first-degree assault, risk of injury to a child, criminal possession of a firearm, criminal use of a firearm and first-degree reckless endangerment. Petitpas fled Connecticut before officers could take him into custody.
Investigators traced Petitpas to a hotel in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Hartford detectives joined officers from the Holyoke Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police at the hotel, where Petitpas refused to leave his room. Police evacuated the remaining guests and attempted to negotiate his surrender during an extended standoff.
When officers ultimately entered the room, they found Petitpas dead from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death brought the manhunt to an end before he could be arrested, arraigned or tried for Tirado’s killing and the shooting of the surviving woman. Because the accused gunman died, the criminal charges contained in the warrants could not proceed through the court system.
Petitpas had a documented history of violent and sexual offenses. Connecticut records showed that he was listed on the state’s sex offender registry following convictions that included first-degree sexual assault, unlawful restraint and risk of injury to a minor in a 2007 case. He had been released from prison in June 2022. He had also previously served time after being convicted of first-degree assault in connection with a near-fatal shooting committed when he was a teenager.
Tirado’s death left her family confronting not only the loss of a loved one but also the trauma of the shooting being witnessed by a young relative. With the suspected gunman dead, there will be no trial or conviction in the case, though Hartford police identified Petitpas as the person responsible and closed the immediate search for a suspect.
