On the night of December 30, 2016, Travis E. Ward, a 31-year-old Black man from New Haven, Connecticut, was looking forward to celebrating his upcoming 32nd birthday. He went to a concert at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, but the night ended in a burst of violence that claimed his life and that of another man, 20-year-old Jaquan Graves. The shooting erupted in the parking lot of the venue as concertgoers were leaving a performance by the rapper Meek Mill.
Wallingford police responded to reports of gunfire and discovered a chaotic scene with multiple victims. Ward and Graves were found with fatal gunshot wounds, while two other individuals sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
The initial investigation into the double homicide involved local and state police, who interviewed numerous witnesses to piece together the events of that tragic night. The breakthrough in the case came in July 2018, over a year and a half after the shooting, when Wallingford police announced the arrests of two suspects. Kyle Hampton, then 23, of North Haven, and Tivon Edwards, 33, of New Haven, were taken into custody and charged in connection with the deaths of Ward and Graves.
Both Hampton and Edwards faced serious charges, including two counts of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit. Hampton was also charged with tampering with physical evidence, while Edwards faced an additional charge of criminal possession of a firearm. According to court documents, an argument in the parking lot escalated into the deadly shooting. One of the suspects, Kyle Hampton, later claimed that he acted in self-defense during the altercation.
The legal process for Hampton and Edwards unfolded over the next several years. In June of 2022, both men were sentenced for their roles in the deaths of Travis Ward and Jaquan Graves. Connecticut Department of Correction records show that Kyle Hampton and Tivon Edwards were each sentenced to a maximum of 10 years and 6 months in prison for the charge of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm.
