Thomas Breen photo
On the front steps of the Walnut St. house where Russell McKenzie was killed.
“He’s not waking up.” “He got shot,” a 35-year-old woman cried over the phone as she called 911 for help.
Police later determined that that 911 caller was the one who did the shooting — potentially because she was high and did not know that the gun she was pointing at her ex-boyfriend was a real weapon.
Those details are included in a nine-page arrest warrant affidavit written on April 25 by New Haven Police Det. Anthony Magnano. The Independent obtained a copy of the affidavit on Tuesday, following a press conference held at police headquarters last week about the arrest.
The affidavit details the police work that led to the arrest of a 35-year-old New Haven woman on felony charges of first-degree manslaughter, criminal possession of a firearm, and carrying a pistol without a permit. Those charges stem from the Dec. 4, 2024, shooting death of 57-year-old New Havener Russell McKenzie in his apartment on Walnut Street in the Jocelyn Square neighborhood.
State court records show that the arrestee is currently being held on a $1 million bond, and has not yet entered pleas to any of the charges. Her next state court date is scheduled for May 14.
“The science of the case was very good,” Police Chief Karl Jacobson said when asked about the arrest, referring to the DNA match connecting the alleged killer and the trigger of the gun apparently used in the homicide. He praised Magnano for doing “some excellent interviews” with a range of sources, including a fellow resident of the Walnut Street building, over the course of the investigation.
“It’s unfortunate,” Jacobson added when reflecting on the intersection of illegal drug use and the potentially accidental firing of the gun that killed McKenzie. “A lot of the [people involved in] street shootings are either on drugs or drinking” as well, he noted. “They’re not thinking clearly.”
Magnano’s affidavit states that, at around 1:14 a.m. on Dec. 4, 2024, officers were dispatched to a four-family house on Walnut Street in response to a report of a person shot.
“Dispatch advised officers that the female 911 caller was crying hysterically yelling, ‘He’s not waking up’ followed by ‘He got shot,’ ” Magnano wrote.
Upon arrival, officers found the 911 caller standing outside the Walnut Street building’s front door. She identified herself as the woman police would arrest for manslaughter five months later.
She “frantically” told officers that there was a man, later identified as McKenzie, shot in the bedroom. The woman complained of chest pain and difficulty breathing and was ultimately transported by ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital’s emergency room. That same night, police found and placed in handcuffs a man who was sleeping in the first-floor apartment as part of a “protective sweep” of the building. (He was later released. He was not the man who was shot.)
The woman, who had been transported to the hospital, was admitted by hospital staff “for possible substance use.” At the hospital, she told police “she was under the influence of multiple illegal substances to include hallucinogenic mushrooms, crack cocaine and alcohol.” She was “actively convulsing from possible withdrawals” but aware enough of her surroundings to tell police what she believed happened at the Walnut Street apartment.
She said that she and McKenzie had made plans earlier in the day to spend the night at his place. She said they were alone in his bedroom having sex, stopped, and then, as she was standing across the room in front of the television with her back to McKenzie, she heard a loud “pop.” She turned and said McKenzie was holding his chest and not breathing. That’s when she “panicked,” ran out of the room, and called 911. She said she never saw a gun during the incident.
Police later searched the first-floor apartment, however, and found in the first-floor common hallway and landing a “black fanny pack, with black and white strap” that contained a “small revolver type handgun” in it. Surveillance video footage from the building would show a woman who looks similar to the 911 caller holding that same bag as she entered the building that night. DNA collected from the gun found on scene, according to police, overwhelmingly matched DNA collected from the woman who called 911.
The man who had been found sleeping in the first-floor apartment and had been handcuffed, meanwhile, told investigators that he had recently befriended McKenzie after meeting him at Narcotics Anonymous several months ago. That man told police that there were no issues between him and McKenzie, and that they were both in “recovery.” He said he was in his bedroom the whole night and did not hear a “pop” at any point, but was instead awakened by the woman screaming as she called 911. He also told police that he did not fire a gun and never saw a gun. The neighbor would subsequently move across the country to Washington to live with his mom — even as he continued to cooperate with police on the homicide investigation.
Subsequent police interviews with confidential informants — who were not named in Magnano’s affidavit — further fleshed out what police believe happened that night.
One source told police that she knows the 35-year-old New Haven woman, who goes by the nickname Bella. That source said that Bella had been “telling everyone she thought the gun used to kill Russell [McKenzie] was a lighter, and she was trying to light her ‘stem’ (crack pipe) but accidentally shot Russell.”
A second confidential source told police that Bella had said “she believed the gun was a lighter and she shot Russell by accident.”
Still another source told police that Bella had been “getting high” at McKenzie’s as well as “messing around” with a “little gun she stated she did not believe was real based on the fact it was so small and so light.” That source told police that Bella “was playfully pointing the gun at McKenzie ultimately firing a round into his chest.” The source said Bella said she did not know the gun was real.
And so police subsequently arrested the 35-year-old woman on charges of manslaughter and, because of prior felony convictions on her record, criminal possession of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit.
