12 Bricks Added To Homicide Memorial

Twelve new bricks were laid into the winding path of the New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing on Saturday morning — each one engraved with a name, each one a life lost to gun violence. 

Six were placed in honor of people shot and killed in the city over the past six months; six in honor of a group of New Haveners who were massacred in a single mass shooting in 1966.

Family members leaned on canes, one another, and even city officials as they gently placed the bricks in the earth. Some wept. Some stood in silence. All remembered.

“Today, you are here because you will place a brick into this walkway. Your loved one will be remembered forever,” said Marlene Miller-Pratt, co-founder of the garden and mother of Gary Kyshon Miller, who was shot and killed in 1998. ​“It’s not gonna be two weeks and they’re forgotten. They will be remembered forever here, in this Botanical Garden.”

Saturday’s ceremony marked the fourth annual memorial at the site, located off Valley Street beside the West River. Dozens of relatives, neighbors, and city leaders gathered to honor victims and reaffirm a pledge: They will not be forgotten.

Six of the twelve bricks added this year bore the names of victims from a single tragedy that shook the city nearly six decades ago. On Aug. 25, 1966, a 27-year-old man entered a home on Northeast Drive with a carbine rifle and fatally shot six people inside. The victims — Mary McClease, Francine McClease, Michael Sykes, Carolyn Sykes, Neal White, and Richard Leathers — ranged in age from a 5‑year-old child to adults in their 50s.

A relative speaking on behalf of the family said, ​“I cannot remember what happened — I was 1 year old — but on that tragic day, August 25, 1966, we lost so many.”

The other six bricks newly added to the memorial path on Saturday were for people shot dead in New Haven over the past half year. Those bricks remembered Raviteja Koyyada, Cedric Goodwin, Aaron Robinson, Clifford Capehart, Keron Troutman, and Heriberto Cotto.

Mayor Justin Elicker stood alongside grieving families as they read names aloud — one by one, over several hours, through intermittent rain. Some names belonged to newborns. Others to grandparents. A few had no known relatives present to speak for them.

Also in attendance were city officials including State Sen. Gary Winfield, Supt. Madeline Negrón, Police Chief Karl Jacobson, Fire Chief John Alston, and Fair Haven Alder Frank Redente Jr., many of whom took turns reading names and offering words of support.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal described the garden as ​“a monument to both mourning and mobilization.” He added, ​“I’m taking a picture of [this garden] to our nation’s Capital. Enough is enough. We must stop adding names.”

One of the final speakers at Saturday’s event was Laquvia Jones, a mother who has lost both her sons to gun violence and has since founded a community outreach group called ​“More Than Just a Name, More Than Just a Number.”

“Seven hundred and eight names that we say today,” Jones said. ​“There’s not 708 people out here.” She pointed to the gap between the scale of loss and the size of the crowd, urging the community to show up before tragedy strikes their own doorstep.

She urged parents, especially in Black communities, to take action — through mentorship, speaking up, and refusing to accept cold cases as closed.

“When are we as a community gonna understand that it’s not OK to keep putting on a T‑shirt?” Jones said.

At the end of the ceremony, Miller-Pratt announced the garden’s next expansion: a pedestrian bridge that will connect the memorial site to the surrounding trails of West Rock Park. She shared that the project was made possible by a generous $150,000 donation from longtime community member Tom Ciancia.

Miller-Pratt introduced Ciancia not just as a donor, but as someone who regularly helps maintain the space — blowing leaves, picking up trash, and supporting the garden year-round.

Ciancia also addressed the crowd. ​“I never thought I could do something like this,” he said. ​“But it’s my honor. I can’t imagine what you all have gone through, and I wanted to do something.”

According to a poster board on display at the ceremony, the project timeline includes a survey and environmental report in spring 2025, followed by permit preparation in summer and application submission in late summer. The fall and winter of 2025 will be devoted to permit review, with bidding and contract execution scheduled for summer 2026. If all goes as planned, the bridge will be ordered in late summer 2026 and installed by the end of that year.

The ceremony concluded with calls for continued remembrance and community action. Organizers reminded attendees that the garden remains open year-round as a place to reflect, honor loved ones, and find healing. 

They also reaffirmed that the annual brick-laying ceremony will continue each June, offering families a space to speak their loved ones’ names and ensure their stories are not forgotten.