In the early hours of September 23, 2017, the city of Hartford was pierced by the sound of gunfire on Albany Avenue. When police arrived at the scene near 1164 Albany Avenue around 12:38 a.m., they discovered a chaotic scene with four individuals suffering from gunshot wounds. One of them, a 31-year-old male named Joshua Taylor, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The initial investigation revealed that a verbal dispute on the sidewalk had quickly and violently escalated.
It is believed that Joshua Taylor was the intended target of the shooter. He sustained a single, fatal gunshot wound to the head. In the ensuing violence, another man, 37-year-old Jovan Wooten, was also shot. Wooten was found unresponsive and rushed to St. Francis Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries on September 29, 2017. Two other victims at the scene sustained non-life-threatening injuries. It was later determined that Wooten, who was a licensed gun permit holder, had returned fire after Taylor was shot, but did not hit the assailant.
The Hartford Police Major Crimes Division launched a thorough investigation, utilizing surveillance footage from the area which had captured the incident. The combination of this video evidence, forensic analysis, and cooperation from citizens led investigators to identify a suspect. In November 2017, police arrested Latroy Johnson, a 40-year-old convicted felon from Windsor who was on probation at the time.
Johnson was charged with two counts of murder, first-degree assault, and criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the deaths of Joshua Taylor and Jovan Wooten. Detectives from the Hartford Police Department developed information that Johnson was scheduled for a probation meeting in Hartford and were able to apprehend him at that time. His bond was set at $2 million.
