Police ID Double Homicide Victims

by Thomas Breen

City police on Wednesday identified the two men killed in Monday’s double homicide in the East Shore as 18-year-old New Havener Malakai Caraballo and 21-year-old Ansonia resident Jayden Martinez.

According to New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spokesperson Justin Harmon, Caraballo was a student at New Haven Academy.

Caraballo and Martinez died Monday after a triple shooting at the Fort Hale Gardens condo complex at 24 Woodward Ave. A third victim, a 24-year-old man from Waterbury, was also struck and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The fatal shootings took place soon before 1:30 p.m. Monday. The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) publicly released the names of the two homicide victims on Wednesday afternoon.

City police spokesperson Christian Bruckhart said that the shootings appeared to take place between “two groups” that “had a connection to each other” and that this was “not a random event.” He said on Wednesday that the NHPD is “holding off on releasing further info for now, although we’ll be increasing some presence in the area to help residents feel more comfortable.” He added, “There does not appear to be any ongoing threat to the public.”

Monday’s homicides marked the city’s first of the year so far, and the first to take place in New Haven since November 2025.

Why Wasn’t Nathan Hale Placed In Lockdown?

The Woodward Avenue condo complex where the triple shooting took place is located next to Nathan Hale School, a PreK-8 public school at 480 Townsend Ave.

Why wasn’t the school placed in lockdown Monday afternoon after the nearby shooting?

“Police alerted us to be watchful but did not recommend a lockdown at Nathan Hale because it was a targeted shooting and the suspects had already left the neighborhood,” Harmon, the NHPS spokesperson, told the Independent.

Police Chief David Zannelli said that the police department is not the only city agency that can place a school in lockdown. School security, who “constantly monitor” the police radio channel, can place a school in lockdown. So too can the city’s 911 dispatchers, or Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

Nevertheless, Zannelli said that the school “should have been locked down” in this instance out of an abundance of caution, even though “I don’t think there was an immediate threat” to the school. “We have to work towards changing policy so that police [who are] busy dealing with a chaotic situation [with] multiple victims” aren’t the only ones who say whether or not a school is locked down. He said is working on reviewing such policies protocols with New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) security and PSAP.

Zannelli said that one of the first to respond to the scene of the shooting was Lt. Ryan Macuirzynski, the district manager for the East Shore neighborhood. He said that Macuirzynski followed the private vehicle that ferried the shooting’s victims to Yale New Haven Hospital.

“We do believe it was an isolated incident,” Zannelli said about the fatal shootings. “But when it happens that close to a school,” the school should have been placed in lockdown, which he stressed is a “shared responsibility” among NHPS security, police, and dispatched.

“Yes, we could do it,” he concluded. “Yes, it should have been done.”