Dubey.
Before he shot bicycle repairman and “straight edge” vegan punk rocker Mitchell Dubey in the chest, an intruder demanded that Dubey and his housemates turn over belongings.
That piece of the still unfolding story about Dubey’s murder last week comes from the police, and responds to questions from some people trying to understand what happened in Dubey’s home on Bassett Street last Thursday night.
Dubey’s inexplicable murder has led to an outpouring of grief among New Haven cyclists and underground musicians, as well as friends and associates from L.A. to Long Island. Dubey, 23, was a beloved service manager and repair teacher at Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, played in local bands, and sometimes hosted potluck house concerts.
When the police initially reported on the shooting, a release stated that Dubey’s home appeared to be “targeted.”
What that means is that the shooter — who remains at large, and whom police have yet to identify — seemed to have come to that door on purpose, rather than randomly looking to hold up people throughout Newhallville, according to Lt. John Velleca. The idea was to reassure people in Newhallville that there was no reason to believe that a gunman was randomly breaking into homes. Velleca heads the department’s Major Crimes Unit, which is investigating the case.
Some people wondered if “targeted” meant Dubey or his housemates had some connection to the shooter. That wasn’t at all what was meant by “targeted,” Velleca said. It didn’t mean that someone was “targeting” Dubey or anyone else in the house. Rather, it meant that the intruder wanted to commit a crime in this particular house, the scene of a previous burglary.
Dubey answered the door around 10 p.m. last Thursday. The gunman had his shirt over his face and was wearing a hoodie. He came inside the living room. He ordered Dubey and his housemates to sit on a couch. He also demanded, “Empty your pockets,” Velleca said.
At that point Dubey pleaded with him, “Dude, just put down the gun.” The man then fired a shot into Dubey’s chest; the bullet went through his body, out his back, and onto the couch. Dubey later died at the hospital.
The gunman immediately fled. “He didn’t get out of there with anything,” Velleca said.
Someone had burglarized the same house, which Dubey shared with several people, a week earlier, when no one was home. Police have no evidence at this point linking the earlier burglary to Thursday’s shooting; but they are investigating that angle, among others.
Dubey’s sister, Lauren, told the Independent Sunday that New Haven detectives working the case have been “very wonderful.” They’ve shared information and gave the family “full-time protection as we were packing up the house.”
At a memorial event for Dubey in Pitkin Plaza Sunday, one of the housemates described for hundreds of people present how his friends got to tell him one more time that they loved him, before he breathed his last breath. Read about that here.
Many "street smarts" experts have said not to get into a car, or an abandoned house, if you are being robbed. Unlike street robberies, where the chance of injury or death is low, your chances of death or serious injury significantly increase as you move to a more secluded place (or in the case of a car, where you can be driven to somewhere secluded). In other words it is better to resist getting in because at least you are in a public place.
Is the same true of your own house? If someone with a gun breaks in, is it best to try to run out?
This kind of information would be useful advice from the police, in case there are more killers lurking out there.