On March 25, 2016, 33-year-old Jerome Mack Jr., a resident of Bloomfield, Connecticut, was fatally shot in an East Hartford apartment. Police were called to a residence on Smith Drive around 6:15 p.m. after receiving at least two 911 calls reporting that shots had been fired. When officers arrived, they found Mack inside with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Paramedics were unable to revive him, and he was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital.
The investigation quickly led police to name James Burrill as a suspect in the shooting. An arrest warrant was issued for Burrill, who was considered armed and dangerous. After several months on the run, Burrill was located and arrested in Syracuse, New York, on August 23, 2016. He was taken into custody without incident and awaited extradition back to Connecticut.
Initially charged with murder, James Burrill later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter in October 2017. Burrill, who was 39 at the time of his plea, claimed that he shot Mack during a physical altercation. According to Burrill, Mack had pulled out a gun, and it went off during a struggle, hitting Mack in the chest. There were no witnesses to the shooting. In exchange for his guilty plea, Burrill was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
