In the waning hours of a late winter afternoon in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the life of 18-year-old Gregory Francilme, a Black/African American male, was tragically cut short. On March 18, 2017, just two days before he would have celebrated his 19th birthday, Francilme was fatally shot near the entrance of an apartment complex on Bretton Street. The incident, which marked the city's sixth homicide of the year, also left another man, a 27-year-old from Stamford, with multiple gunshot wounds which
he survived. Emergency responders found both men lying on the ground behind the building. Francilme was rushed to St. Vincent's Medical Center where he succumbed to gunshot wounds to the back of his head and torso.
The investigation into the double shooting quickly pointed to a suspect. Tikhari Morton, who was 19 at the time, was arrested in Waterbury the day after the shooting in connection with an unrelated armed robbery of a deli. While in custody for the Waterbury case, Morton confessed to the Bridgeport shooting. He told detectives that he had been behind the apartment building to sell marijuana when Francilme and the other man approached him aggressively. Morton claimed he felt threatened and shot them in order to get away. The surviving victim, however, told police that they were there to buy sneakers from Morton when he began shooting for no reason.
In December 2023, following a seven-day trial and five days of jury deliberations, Tikhari Morton was found not guilty of murder but was convicted of first-degree manslaughter with reckless indifference to human life, first-degree assault, and possession of a pistol without a permit. Morton, who had taken the stand in his own defense and admitted to the shootings but claimed self-defense, was ultimately sentenced in March 2024 to 50 years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of special parole. At the sentencing, the judge acknowledged the profound loss of Francilme's mother, who was present in the courtroom.
