Shooting Suspect Called 911

I just shot my girlfriend, the caller told the 911 operator. I don’t think she’s breathing.

A 32-year-old West Haven woman made that call to 911 after she allegedly shot and killed Dwaneia Alexandria Turner in the Hill. Turner was at that moment lying in the street, bleeding from the mouth, and not breathing.

Those details are included in an affidavit written by city police Det. Cherelle Carr about the March 16 murder of Turner, a 28-year-old New Haven woman and mother of two who is one of nine homicide victims in the city so far this year.

On Tuesday, the New Haven Police Department charged Turner’s girlfriend with one count of felony murder, one count of misdemeanor first-degree reckless endangerment, and one count of misdemeanor illegal discharge of a firearm for her alleged involvement in the shooting death of Turner and the shooting and injury of Turner’s close friend.

The new charges come several weeks after police initially charged Turner’s girlfriend with one count of felony first-degree assault on the day after the homicide.

The arrestee has entered a pro forma not guilty plea for the latter charge; she has not yet entered a plea for the most recent set of charges. She is currently being held at York Correctional Institution on a $2 million bond.

Carr’s affidavit and related reports written by responding city police Officers Matthew Curran, David Lavorgna, Patricia Lambe, and Thomas Arnone offer a detailed look at what happened that Tuesday night in mid-March at the corner of Legion Avenue and Auburn Street.

The various police officer and detective accounts — which include interviews with the suspect, the victim’s friend, and a clerk of a nearby convenience store — paint the picture of a violent and fatal conclusion to a daylong fight between two girlfriends who appeared to be in the process of breaking up after two and a half years together.

Turner’s murder and the subsequent, unrelated shooting death of Alessia Mesquita in Fair Haven Heights on March 22 have sparked renewed attention by local healthcare providers, domestic violence counsellors, and other advocates on the increased threats of intimate partner violence during the pandemic.

The narrative pieced together by New Haven police about Turner’s death is filled with details particular to a romantic relationship unraveling: accusations of infidelity, sexual frustration, and one partner following the other even though the latter wants nothing to do with them.

The police reports also show how what started as fighting over phone calls and text messages turned into an in-person verbal altercation, and then escalated into a physical fight — with Turner allegedly using a knife to slash her girlfriend’s car’s tire, and the arrestee allegedly responding by shooting and killing Turner in the street.

“A Significant Amount Of Blood”

Carr wrote in her March 31 affidavit that, at approximately 10:15 p.m. on March 16, the 32-year-old West Haven woman called 911 to report that she had shot Turner.

During that 911 call, the arrestee said that she had just shot her girlfriend with a gun. She ​“stated she did not believe her girlfriend was breathing and she refused to perform CPR on her girlfriend.”

City police officers were then dispatched at around 10:18 p.m. to the area of Legion Avenue and Auburn Street on the report of a gunshot victim.

Upon arrival, officers located Turner, who was ​“unresponsive, on her back lying on the ground, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.”

Officers also located the 32-year-old West Haven woman, who was standing next to Turner and holding a firearm.

Officers told her to put the gun on the roof of the car, which she did. Then Officer Curran put her in handcuffs.

“I walked [the arrestee] over to the opposite side of the street and had her sit on the sidewalk,” Curran wrote in a separate report. ​“Officer Noble arrived on scene and I had him stand by with [the arrestee] while I went to go check on” Turner.

“When I got back to [Turner] I observed that she was not moving, had a significant amount of blood on her body with a majority of it around her face, and she did not appear to be breathing. I saw that there was a large kitchen knife covered in blood on the ground next to [Turner’s] left hand.”

Carr wrote that the arrestee agreed to be transported to police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. for an interview.

Turner was then taken by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital, where she was pronounced deceased at 10:35 p.m.

Police also found a second victim at the scene of the shooting in the Hill. That woman, a friend of Turner’s, had a gunshot wound to the right hand. Officer Arnone found her at the Seven Haven Corner Store at Sylvan Avenue and Greenwood Street, where she had gone to call the police.

The second woman was admitted to the hospital and treated for a gunshot wound to the right hand. Medical personnel extracted a projectile from her hand.

Carr wrote that a separate recorded 911 call confirmed that the second victim had indeed called 911 the night of the shooting.

“She sounded frantic as she reported she was shot in the hand, and her sister [Turner] was shot,” Carr wrote.

The second victim later told police that she had known Turner for 14 years, and they called each other sisters, even though they were not blood-related.

On March 18, a doctor from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Turner, and deemed the cause of death as a gunshot wound and the manner of death a homicide.

Carr also wrote that city police Det. Joshua Smereczynsky collected four 9mm. fired cartridge casings located at the intersection of Legion Avenue and Auburn Street.

One fired cartridge casing was located under a 2015 Acura TL, which belonged to the arrestee. The remaining fired cartridge casings were found in the middle of Auburn Street between the arrestee’s car and Turner’s friend’s car.

Detectives also seized the firearm which the arrestee was holding when first responders arrived. Carr wrote that that firearm was later determined to be a Ruger Model LC92 semi automatic handgun.

“Also collected from the scene was one chef’s knife (medium size),” Carr wrote, ​“and one black knife sheath which was located on the ground behind [the friend’s] vehicle where [Turner’s] body was located.”

There was also one projectile collected near the friend’s car’s right passenger rear wheel.

“Warning Shots”?

On March 17, Carr continued, city police Sgt. Agosto and Det. Soto interviewed the arrestee, who read and signed her Miranda rights waiver.

Soto confirmed with the arrestee that she owned a firearm.

The woman stated that she and Turner ​“were in a dating relationship for approximately 2.5 years.”

She said she had been in a dispute with Turner since the morning of March 16.

She said that, earlier that same day, Turner had ​“ended their relationship,” so the arrestee left their residence on Legion Avenue at approximately 4 p.m.

The arrestee explained that, throughout the day, she and Turner ​“argued with each other through telephone calls and text messages. When she returned to residence, she found her personal belongings packed, and [Turner] continued to ask her to leave.”

The arrestee said she left the residence to get something to eat, and returned at approximately 10 p.m.

She said she parked her car at the intersection of Legion and Auburn. Shortly thereafter, Turner and her friend arrived in her friend’s car, which they parked at the same intersection on the opposite side of the street.

Turner ​“exited the vehicle with a bag in her hand” and ​“got out of the vehicle screaming,” according to Carr’s writeup of the arrestee’s account.

The arrestee said that Turner ​“began striking her in the face with a closed fist, and that [Turner] poured chocolate syrup on her.”

The arrestee said she began fighting back to defend herself. She said she heard Turner ask her friend to get a knife.

She said that, ​“when she heard mention of a knife, she immediately went to retrieve her handgun” from her car.

The arrestee said that her handgun had been located in the area of the center console of her car.

“After retrieving her handgun and exiting the vehicle, she heard her rear right tire being punctured.”

The arrestee said that, ​“when she began shooting, she believed [Turner] was coming towards her, and she didn’t know what [Turner] was going to do. [She] then acknowledged that she never saw [Turner] with the knife, but she believed she had the knife in her hand.”

The arrestee said that she was at the rear driver side of her vehicle when she began shooting.

She said she was firing ​“warning shots” for Turner to move back ​“because she felt threatened.” She said she fired approximately three to four shots.

She then advanced on Turner. ​“I was trying to shoot her away,” she told the police.

The arrestee acknowledged that she fired the first shot while standing at the rear of her vehicle, and that she fired the last shot while near Turner’s friend’s vehicle.

She said that she kept shooting ​“out of impulse” even while Turner was walking back.

She said the last shot was when Turner fell to the ground near her friend’s car.

The arrestee called 911 for assistance and ​“checked her [Turner’s] pulse.” She said that was when she saw the knife next to Turner’s body.

After the interview, police arrested the arrestee and charged her for the non-fatal shooting of Turner’s friend.

“She Continued To Shoot”

On March 18, Carr interviewed Turner’s friend who had been shot in the hand.

The friend said that it was common for Turner to discuss relationship problems with her.

The friend said that she spoke with Turner several times on her cellphone over the course of the day. During the first call, they spoke about an ongoing dispute between Turner and the arrestee.

During a FaceTime call between Turner and the friend, Turner showed her the trash that the arrestee had left in the hallway leading to her residence.

Turner told her that the arrestee ​“continued to come to her residence throughout the day although she told [her] she did not want her to be there.”

The friend told Carr that, during the evening of March 16, Turner had asked her to come to her Legion Avenue residence so they could talk.

She picked up Turner at her home, and they drove around the city together, during which time they ​“briefly spoke about the dispute between” Turner and her girlfriend.

Turner told the friend ​“she believed [the arrestee] was cheating on her, and that she wanted to end her relationship with” the arrestee.

Turner explained that the argument was about Turner trying to perform oral sex on the arrestee ​“on three separate occasions, and [the arrestee] refused [Turner’s] advances.”

Turner told her friend she believed the arrestee was in the area because she ​“kept returning to the residence being very disruptive, causing [Turner’s] children to be scared.”

The friend said she told Turner she had to go to work, and so she was going to drop Turner off at home. Turner asked the friend to drive around the block first in the event that, if the arrestee was in the area, she could call the police.

As the friend traveled onto Legion Avenue, ​“they noticed [the arrestee] standing outside of her vehicle at the intersection of Legion Avenue and Auburn Street.”

As the friend approached Auburn Street, Turner began to exit the vehicle while the car was still in motion. She exited the vehicle and approached her girlfriend.

The friend then said that the arrestee put her arm underneath Turner’s arm ​“and walked with her to the side of the street.”

The friend said Turner and her girlfriend were initially talking calmly. She said she looked away for a few seconds, and when she looked back, Turner and the arrestee were fighting.

The friend said she exited her vehicle and went to intervene. She said she got in between the fighting couple and physically separated them.

The arrestee then hit Turner ​“and they began to fight again.”

The friend said she tried to guide Turner away from the altercation, and then she heard Turner say out loud, ​“Where is my knife?”

The friend said she looked around and saw a butcher knife on the ground near the arrestee’s vehicle. The friend said she ​“hesitated to pick the knife up because she was scared. Before she could pick it up, she saw [Turner] pick the knife up and then puncture [the arrestee’s] vehicle’s rear right passenger tire with the knife.”

Detectives confirmed on scene that the rear right passenger tire of the arrestee’s car appeared to be punctured.

The friend said she looked back and saw the arrestee holding what she believed to be a firearm.

The friend then heard a ​“noise later determined to be a firearm being fired.” She said she did not see the arrestee retrieve the gun because her back was towards the arrestee.

The friend said she heard Turner ask her girlfriend ​“if she was going to shoot her.” The friend said she did not realize the first shot was gunfire.

“She was unsure if her hand was struck by the second or third gunshot.”

As the friend was running, she heard another gunshot, and when she looked back, she saw Turner fall to the ground. The friend said she believed she heard three or four gunshots.

The friend said she did not believe the arrestee was trying to shoot her ​“because she was focused on” Turner.

The friend said she never saw Turner walk towards the arrestee with the knife, ​“so she could not understand why [she] continued to shoot the gun.

“When she set off the first shot my sister was not attacking her,” the friend told Carr, ​“when she set off the second shot my sister was not attacking her, she continued to shoot. She shot me and hit me, and my sister didn’t attack her, she was just standing there. At what point was [the arrestee] scared or frightened? At what point was she going to stop?”

Four Shots In One Minute

Carr also described video footage obtained from 39 Auburn St.

That video shows the arrestee’s vehicle make a right from Legion Avenue onto Auburn Street and then park on the left side of Auburn Street at approximately 10:11 p.m.

At approximately 10:12 p.m., the friend’s vehicle starts to turn right from Legion on Auburn and then stops midway in the intersection. Then a person, believed to be Turner, exits the vehicle.

Turner and the arrestee then walk towards the left corner of Legion and Auburn closer to the arrestee’s vehicle.

At approximately 10:13 p.m., the friend exits her vehicle and begins running across the street towards the two individuals.

Roughly 40 seconds later, ​“one gunshot is heard, and immediately after a silhouette of a person runs back across the street. There is a brief pause then at approximately 10:13:47pm there is another shot, at approximately 10:13:50pm a third shot. The fourth shot is heard at 10:13:58pm.

“The silhouette of a person and what is believed to be a muzzle flash moves from the area of what is believed to be [the arrestee’s] vehicle” towards the friend’s vehicle during the gunfire.

Carr also wrote that police were able to confirm that the arrestee was the registered owner of a Ruger Model LC95 semiautomatic handgun, and she had a valid state pistol permit at the time of this incident.

There were no protective or restraining orders on file between Turner and the arrestee.