In the late hours of a Tuesday in New Haven, Connecticut, the life of Thomas Hart, a 28-year-old male, was brought to a sudden and violent end. On May 21, 2019, officers responded to 911 calls and a ShotSpotter alert in the Hill neighborhood, where they found Hart in the street on Congress Avenue near Redfield Street. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the torso and was transported to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later confirmed that his death was a homicide caused by a gunshot wound that perforated his lung.
The investigation into Hart's death quickly led to a suspect, James Tobin, a 32-year-old man from Seymour. Tobin was arrested and charged with murder, with his bail set at $2 million. According to court documents and Tobin's own confession to police, the fatal encounter began as a drug deal arranged over Facebook for the purchase of marijuana. Tobin had driven to New Haven with a 9 mm pistol to meet Hart.
During the transaction inside Tobin's truck in a parking lot on Bond Avenue, Tobin claimed he was robbed at gunpoint by Hart and three other unidentified men. They allegedly took cash and his cellphone before fleeing on foot. Tobin told investigators that he "saw red" and initially fired a single shot in their direction. He then pursued the group in his truck, driving the wrong way down a one-way street before spotting them again on Congress Avenue, where he fired three more shots from his window. After fleeing the scene, Tobin learned from news reports that he had killed Hart. Surveillance video from a local deli and a tip from a man who reported being shot at by someone in a pickup truck with a matching license plate helped police identify Tobin.
Known to his friends and family as "LT," Thomas Hart was remembered as a loving uncle with a great sense of humor. His family, while acknowledging he wasn't perfect, expressed their unconditional love and profound loss, stating he did not deserve to die. Friends recalled his ability to always make people smile and, in the wake of his death, called for an end to gun violence.
