by Thomas Breen
Wicker’s girlfriend Mary Orta: “I was only five months pregnant when my whole world fell apart.”
The late Niygere Wicker.
Nearly two years after 21-year-old New Havener Niygere Wicker was shot and killed while riding his dirt bike in Fair Haven, police have arrested the two men allegedly responsible for his murder.
Police Chief David Zannelli, Capt. Nicholas Marcucio, and Mayor Justin Elicker announced those arrests during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
Standing alongside a dozen of Wicker’s family members and friends, they spoke about how police have arrested a 20-year-old man from Wolcott on the charge of accessory to murder and an 18-year-old man from West Haven on the charges of murder and carrying a pistol without a permit.
Each arrestee is currently being held on a $1.5 million bond. Neither has yet entered any pleas to their respective criminal charges.
Capt. Nicholas Marcucio said that police were dispatched to the area of Ferry Street and Wolcott Street on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, at around 12:03 p.m., on the report of a person shot.
Marcucio and Zannelli said that the two arrestees were in a vehicle, chasing Wicker — with the then-16-year-old leaning out the window of the car and shooting. Wicker “was struck” by the gunfire and fell off of his dirt bike. Zannelli said police are “not certain” of the arrestees’ motive.
“This was phenomenal detective work,” Zannelli said as he praised Det. Allyn Wright for pursuing this case for almost two years. The 18-year-old was arrested in West Haven on July 28; the 20-year-old was arrested in Wallingford on July 30.
“This case relied heavily on technology,” Zannelli said about these two arrests nearly two years after Wicker’s murder. He also said it “takes time to get DNA” evidence back from the lab as well as cellphone data that helps bolster an investigator’s case.
Elicker said that Wicker had lived in the West River neighborhood, was a graduate of High School in the Community, and worked for the prison-reentry nonprofit EMERGE. He was also about to become a father — but did not live long enough to meet his baby daughter.
“I was only five months pregnant when my whole world fell apart,” said Wicker’s girlfriend, Mary Orta. While other expectant mothers were planning baby showers and decorating nurses, she said, she was planning a funeral.
“We planned our whole future together,” she said through tears about Wicker. She said she plans to spend the rest of her life making sure her daughter knows that her father’s life “had value.”
“He was taken from a lot of people,” said Wicker’s aunt, Felicia Byrd. “He was well loved.”
Wednesday’s press conference took place less than a month after police announced that another years-long murder investigation — into the 2023 shooting death of 25-year-old Ramon Yates — had also resulted in the arrests of two people. And it came less than a day after someone shot and killed 19-year-old New Havener Chavis Goldson and 25-year-old West Havener Lorenzo Foreman on Judson Avenue.
Capt. Nicholas Marcucio at Wednesday’s presser.
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