Witness Weighed Retaliation, Changed Mind

After holding back from police investigators multiple times, an eyewitness to a 2017 murder decided to identify — rather than retaliate against — the man who allegedly shot and killed Norman Boone.

That pivotal change of course is laid out in an arrest warrant affidavit written by New Haven Police Det. Bleck Joseph. 

On Monday, the state court system unsealed and provided the Independent with that affidavit in the criminal case of Treyvon Battle, a 31-year-old New Havener whom city police recently arrested and charged with murdering 27-year-old New Havener Norman Boone on a Saturday afternoon on Dickerman Street back on May 27, 2017. Boone’s death came several years after street outreach workers had hailed Boone in 2008 for turning around his life after being part of the Dixwell-based​“Tribe” gang.

Joseph’s nine-page affidavit, meanwhile, sheds new light on what happened the day of the shooting, on why police believe Battle was responsible, and on the five years’ worth of police work that went into the investigation that led to his arrest.

The affidavit also quotes Battle as denying having shot and killed Boone. Battle named someone else as the alleged shooter; he did not convince police.

Joseph’s affidavit states that Battle, a member of the Grape Street Crips gang, murdered Boone because of a ​“feud over a woman.” It also quotes one confidential witness as telling police investigators that Battle killed Boone because of a ​“joke that [Battle] couldn’t handle.”

The clear break in the case is detailed towards the end of the affidavit, when — on May 17, 2022 — an eyewitness to the shooting who had spoken with police three times over the years decided in a fourth police interview to identify Battle as the alleged killer.

He wasn’t the only eyewitness to the shooting. 

Police received five 911 calls on the Saturday afternoon when Boone was killed. Multiple people said they saw two people get shot on Dickerman Street. (The second victim wound up surviving from his injury to the neck.) 

One particular witness’s interview — or, rather, interviews — proved decisive.

During a recent press conference at police headquarters, Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson and Acting Police Chief Regina Rush-Kittle joined over a dozen of Boone’s family and friends to praise that unidentified ​“courageous community member” for coming forward and helping identify Battle as the killer.

Joseph’s affidavit makes clear just how important of a role that eyewitness’s recent testimony, and change of heart, played in leading to Battle’s arrest five years after he allegedly shot and killed Boone.

That’s because the eyewitness’s statement to the police on May 17, 2022, marked quite the change from what he had told police the day of the shooting on May 27, 2017, the day after the shooting on May 28, 2017, and during a third interview on April 27, 2022.

During those first three interviews, the eyewitness said that he saw the shooting, but that he didn’t recognize the assailant.

In the fourth interview, on May 17, 2022, he told police that the shooter was Battle.

The eyewitness ​“stated he had not told previous investigators at the time” that Battle was the one who killed Boone ​“because he wanted to seek retribution on his own,” Joseph wrote about that most recent interview.

But now the eyewitness told police ​“he had changed his life around and wanted to do the right thing to provide peace to” Boone’s mother.

So he identified Battle as the killer.

Over the course of the nine-page affidavit, Joseph goes into detail on all of the other evidence that police gathered against Battle over the years.

That included DNA analysis and eyewitness reports that connected Battle with an allegedly stolen gold Chevrolet Impala seen at the scene of the shooting. Police reviewed text messages Battle sent in the days after the shooting in which he worried about people ​“snitching.” Battle’s phone showed a deleted text message sent to Boone 14 minutes before the homicide. It read, ​“I’m out here.”

Police also tracked down the gun that was used in the Dickerman Street shooting, but did not find any evidence of Battle’s DNA on the weapon.

Throughout the affidavit, the change-of-heart eyewitness’s testimony emerges again and again as critical to the police’s investigation.

During the first interview, on May 17, 2017 with New Haven Police Det. Arpad Tolnay, the witness said that Boone and the second victim ​“were walking on Dickerman Street toward Orchard Street when they were approached by a male in a hoodie.” The witness said he didn’t know who the man in the hoodie was. He said the unknown man stated, ​“Empty your pockets,” showed a handgun, and then wound up shooting the man Boone was with, and then Boone. 

The next day, the witness spoke with Det. Mike Wuchek. The witness told Wuchek that a man ​“jumped out from behind a car with a gun in his hand” while Boone and the second victim were walking down Dickerman Street. He said the second man tried to grab the gun, and then got shot twice by the unknown assailant, who then shot Boone.

City police then went several years without interviewing the witness again, as they worked on gathering other evidence.

That included an interview with a confidential witness in February of this year. That witness told Joseph that he was in a halfway house with Battle in 2021, and that Battle confessed to killing Boone ​“over a joke that he couldn’t handle.”

Then, on April 27 of this year, Joseph and a fellow city detective interviewed the eyewitness again. That eyewitness said that, soon before the shooting, he saw Boone talking with a man he didn’t recognize. That conversation ​“turned into an argument.” He said that the second victim tried to stop the argument, but that the unknown man wound up shooting both him and Boone. He also told police investigators that the original statement he had given to detectives on May 27 and May 28, 2017 ​“was a lie.”

Finally, on May 17, the eyewitness spoke with Joseph again. He told the police detective that [t]here was an argument between Norman and Treyvon over a woman”. He said Battle was ​“upset that Norman was sexually involved” with that woman. When Boone and the second victim were on Dickerman Street, the eyewitness said, he saw Battle ​“with a gun in his waistband.” He said Battle first shot the second victim in the neck, then chased down Boone before ​“multiple gunshots at Norman.”

And, for the first time, the eyewitness told police investigators that he knew who Battle was. He said he knew Battle was from the Hill neighborhood and was in the Grape Street Crips gang. 

He stated that he had withheld that identifying information from police during previous interviews because he wanted to exact retribution himself against Battle. But now, the eyewitness said, he has changed his life around. He said he wanted to do the right thing and provide peace to Boone’s mother.

He then identified Battle as the person who shot and killed Boone, and signed and dated a photo presented to him by the police. 

What about the person whom Battle blamed for the shooting in his brief statement to the police about the case?

Joseph wrote that city detectives ​“attempted to speak” with the man identified by Battle ​“in regards to the homicide investigation.” That man declined to speak with investigators. Joseph also wrote that that man ​“was never developed as a suspect until interjected by” Battle into the case. Joseph also wrote that Battle told detectives that a person named ​“Ant” was responsible for the shooting, but police were never able to identify ​“Ant.”

Battle initially blamed that other individual during an interview with police in July 2017. That interview took place when Battle was arrested on firearms charges unrelated to Boone’s shooting death.

Joseph interviewed Battle again on May 10, 2022. Battle was in custody at the New Haven Police Department at the time for another firearm-related arrest. When Joseph attempted to talk with Battle about Boone’s homicide, ​“Treyvon stated he had nothing to say in regards to the homicide.”