Just before dawn on July 3, 2023, Gregory Betsey, a 43-year-old Black / African American man, was walking with his girlfriend through a neighborhood on Prospect Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. They were taking a shortcut home when their path led them through a rear parking lot. It was there, in the early morning quiet, that Betsey was fatally shot. A citizen reported the shooting a little before 5:30 a.m., and when Hartford police arrived, they found him unresponsive behind a building.
He was quickly transported to St. Francis Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, just days shy of his 44th birthday.
The investigation into the death of the Hartford resident moved swiftly. Investigators processed the scene and, through witness accounts and surveillance footage, were able to identify a suspect. The same day, police arrested 27-year-old Jordan Green, who lived on Prospect Avenue near where the shooting occurred. Green was charged with murder, along with numerous firearm and drug-related offenses, including eight counts of criminal possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance. He was held on a $2.5 million bond.
According to the arrest warrant, the incident began when Green's girlfriend, watching from their third-floor porch, saw Betsey and his girlfriend in the parking lot below. After a brief interaction where Betsey picked up a discarded wooden case, the couple moved to an adjacent lot. Green, dressed in all black, then allegedly approached Betsey and, without warning, began shooting. In a subsequent interview with detectives, Green admitted to the killing. He claimed that he recognized Betsey as one of the individuals who had robbed him the previous day during a prearranged meeting to buy a car. Fearing that his attacker now knew where he lived, Green told police he retrieved a revolver from his apartment, walked up to Betsey, and "shot at him until he was out of ammunition."
