In the early morning hours of August 6, 2011, a grim discovery shattered the quiet of a Norwalk, Connecticut neighborhood. A 27-year-old Black man named Iroquois Alston and his companion, 22-year-old Rickita Smalls, were found inside a parked black Honda sedan on Avenue B. A nearby resident, noticing the shattered passenger-side window and Smalls unresponsive in the car shortly before 8 a.m., immediately alerted the authorities.
When police arrived, they found that both Alston and Smalls had been fatally shot in the head.
Alston, a resident of Bridgeport, had been released from prison just a few months prior, in May, after serving an eight-year sentence for robbery. His family remembered him as a man who loved sports, particularly golf, basketball, and football, and who also had a passion for reading. He was a father, leaving behind a young son and daughter. The initial stages of the investigation were uncertain, with police considering various scenarios before the state medical examiner officially ruled both deaths as homicides.
Despite the passage of years, the double homicide of Iroquois Alston and Rickita Smalls remains an unsolved cold case. No arrests have ever been made, and no suspects have been publicly named, although investigators have mentioned having persons of interest. The case has left a lasting wound on the community and on the victims' families, who have made emotional public pleas for anyone with information to come forward. A $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible continues to be offered by the state, a standing reminder of a search for justice that has yet to find its end. The killer or killers remain at large, and the motive behind the violent act is still unknown.
