On a Sunday afternoon, February 23, 2020, an 18-year-old Black / African American male named Dashown Tyrese Myers was fatally shot in New Haven, Connecticut. The incident occurred around 3:48 p.m. at the Quinnipiac Ridge Apartments on Quinnipiac Avenue. Police responded to reports of gunfire and discovered Myers inside one of the units, suffering from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital, but tragically, he was pronounced dead.
His death marked the first homicide of the year in the city.
Dashown was a former student at Wilbur Cross High School, where he had been a gifted football player. Remembered for his "million dollar smile," he was described by family and friends as a loving person with aspirations for his future. In his younger years, he had been active in his church, even encouraging and praying for the elderly in nursing homes. His family acknowledged that in his teenage years he had begun to associate with the wrong people but was in the process of returning to the person he truly was when his life was cut short.
In the wake of the shooting, the community gathered for candlelight vigils to honor Dashown's memory and to plead for an end to gun violence. His mother, Laquvia Jones, addressed those who gathered, expressing her "unbearable, indescribable pain." She powerfully urged the young people in attendance to turn away from street life and pleaded for no retaliation, stating that violence would not bring her son back.
The investigation into Dashown Myers' death remains ongoing. The New Haven Police Department has continued to seek information from the public to help solve the case, but to date, no arrests have been made, and no suspects have been publicly identified. The family's suffering was compounded less than three years later when Dashown's older brother, Dontae Myers, was also shot and killed in New Haven on New Year's Day 2023.
