By THOMAS BREEN | New Haven Independent
“You are the fucking guy who was racing in front of my house,” a 25-year-old New Havener allegedly said after confronting a teenager in his truck late at night in Fair Haven this summer.
“I’m ready to shoot,” he threatened.
He then noticed what would turn out to be a BB gun on the truck’s dashboard.
“Oh so you have a gun,” the man said — soon before pulling the trigger of his own silver handgun and killing the young man behind the wheel.
That fatal altercation is described in a 10-page arrest warrant affidavit written and signed on Monday by New Haven Police Det. Thomas Blaisdell. The Independent obtained a copy of the affidavit on Thursday.
Citing video surveillance records and witness interviews, the affidavit describes in detail what police believe took place in the minutes running up to when someone shot and killed 17-year-old High School in the Community graduate John Tubac on Poplar Street in Fair Haven late at night on July 3.
Earlier this week at a press conference at police headquarters, top city cops announced that they had arrested 25-year-old Fair Havener Kiyon Matheney for that crime. He’s been charged with murder, criminal possession of a firearm, criminal possession of a pistol, and carrying a pistol without a permit. He is currently being held on a $2 million bond.
Blaisdell’s affidavit fleshes out claims made by the police chief and assistant chief during that presser about how an argument about truck racing immediately preceded Tubac’s murder. It also provides new details about how Tubac might have had a BB gun on the dashboard of his truck at the time of the shooting, and that he and Matheney might have wrestled over that BB gun soon before Matheney allegedly pulled the trigger of his all-too-real weapon.
During an interview with city cops as described in Blaisdell’s affidavit, Matheney denied having committed the murder. He claimed instead that he was out selling drugs the night of the shooting. He said that he did not shoot the victim, that he was nowhere near the victim’s vehicle, and that he has never possessed a gun. While city cops did not obtain a DNA match for Matheney based on the evidence police have collected in this case, they arrested him based on witness identification, an anonymous tip, and video surveillance that appeared to show him and his car the night of the shooting.