Riverside Academy in New Haven has brought in counselors, a comfort dog and additional school resource officers to support the school community after a 17-year-old was shot and killed in the city on Tuesday night.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and police identified the teen as 17-year-old Daily Jackson, of New Haven.
Jackson was shot on Shelton Avenue near Huntington Street just before 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Video surveillance shows a person inside of a vehicle fire at Jackson as he was walking on Shelton Avenue, police said. Investigators do not believe it was a random attack.
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New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that they located the vehicle, a stolen car, and they are processing it.
Jacobson said the Riverside Academy student was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital where he later died.
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He was the second classmate to be killed in two weeks.
Police believe the shooting might be connected to the shooting death of 16-year-old Uzziah Shell two weeks ago. They said the two teens knew each other and they were friends.
Jacobson said both victims were involved in feuds with other groups and police believe they were targeted.
He said police will find anyone who is responsible and he is calling on friends of the two victims not to retaliate and destroy their lives.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said both were involved in city programs designed to help young residents.
Shell died in a broad daylight shooting two weeks ago.
Shell’s funeral will be held on Saturday, Jacobson said, and there will be a police presence.
Dr. Madeline Negrón, superintendent of the New Haven Public Schools, said they have activated crisis teams to come into the school to provide support for those who need it.
“We're here this morning knowing that we have students who will be arriving, who will have heard some news, may have heard rumors about, you know, who it was. And they're going to be arriving in a state of high anxiety,” Justin Harmon, the communications director for New Haven Public Schools, said.
Riverside Academy is an alternative school for students in the city and Harmon said it’s very tightknit with only 120 students.
“The staff really get to know the students as individuals. They're really working hard for their success as students and oftentimes these are students who've had a difficult time, you know, in school and in life. And so having the support that they need is tremendously important to their completing high school and going on with their lives. So, we want to be especially thoughtful and careful about a day like today and how we care for them,” Harmon added.
Elicker said police are working hard to locate the people responsible for the shootings and bring them to justice.
The shooting that killed Daily came one day after a fatal shooting in a parking lot on George Street Monday afternoon.
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 203-946-6304.
The mayor, police and school officials are holding a news conference at 2 p.m.
