On a spring afternoon in Hartford, Connecticut, the life of three-year-old Randell Tarez Jones Jr. was tragically cut short. On April 10, 2021, the young boy was a passenger in a car with his mother and two siblings when another vehicle pulled alongside them at the intersection of Garden and Nelson streets. Gunfire erupted from the other car, and a bullet struck Randell, who was seated in the back. His mother rushed him to a nearby hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries.
The other two children in the vehicle were not physically harmed.
The shooting was not a random act of violence. Investigators believe the intended target was a man in the car with Randell and his family. This man, who was not publicly identified by police, reportedly fled the scene after the shooting but later cooperated with investigators. The incident was part of a string of violence that day, as another shooting hours later claimed the life of 16-year-old Ja'Mari Preston. Authorities came to believe the two deadly shootings were connected.
The investigation into Randell's death moved swiftly. Within a week, Hartford police identified 19-year-old Jaziah Smith as the suspected shooter. Smith was taken into custody on April 19, 2021, and charged with murder. A second suspect, an unidentified juvenile who was allegedly driving the stolen Honda Accord used in the drive-by shooting, was also arrested. The juvenile was charged with accessory to murder and second-degree larceny.
In September 2024, a jury found Jaziah Smith guilty of murder. Randell's mother had identified Smith from a photo array as the person who shot her son. The following December, Smith, then 23, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the killing of the young boy. At the sentencing, he apologized to Randell's mother for his actions. Months after his son's death, Randell's father, Randell Jones Sr., was himself injured in a separate drive-by shooting that he claimed involved the same individuals responsible for his son's death. One of the individuals arrested in that shooting was the older brother of Ja'Mari Preston, the teenager killed on the same day as Randell.
