Police Report Leads In Killing Of Youth Worker, 33

Police have identified the person they believe may have shot dead Michael Wint, a 33-year-old New Havener who had used his own experience seeking to straighten out his life to help other young people do the same.

Wint was found shot inside a white sedan parked at 296 Whalley Ave. Saturday around 1 a.m. He was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Another man who was shot in the lower back and stomach later walked into the hospital, where he was listed in critical condition; the two shootings are believed to be related, according to police spokesperson Capt. Rose Dell.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson said Monday that police believe that Wint’s shooting was targeted, not random, and that it resulted from a dispute with another person. Police have identified a suspect in the shooting, Jacobson said.

As far back as 2009, Wint, who went by the nickname ​“Rodeo,” worked with people in New Haven to help pursue a productive life as they re-entered society from the criminal justice system.

In 2009 he participated in a city-organized ​“Youth Summit” held at the Quinnipiack Club, featuring government and business leaders and community workers. The program listed Wint as a speaker, someone who was being ​“mentored by Che Dawson,” then a city government official.

Dawson, who’s now the principal of Highville Charter School & Change Academy, told the Independent on Monday he had originally met Wint when Wint was a student involved in the LEAP athletics and academics organization, back when Dawson served as the director. Wint subsequently reconnected with Dawson.

“He was looking to get his life on track,” Dawson recalled. ​“He was a nice kid. He was really trying to do the right thing. There were several obstacles in his path. He was very receptive to my guidance. He was working and getting himself on the right track.”

In 2010, Wint, who grew up in the Hill neighborhood, served on a committee that edited and updated the city’s Reentry Resource Guide.

Wint pursued a real-estate career. He worked as an agent with a local agency called Platinum Associates. He also worked for a while with Farnam Realty, and on his own.

“He was a really kind guy, very outgoing and a go-getter,” recalled Darielis Gracia, a fellow agent who worked with Wint at Platinum.

Most recently, Wint worked as a staff youth mentor at Community Partners In Action, a Hamden facility for young people referred by the state juvenile probation department. The position was for someone who has experience in the criminal-justice system and can influence others. ​“He was someone that was trying to work and do something positive. He wanted to work with kids, just show them a different way,” said Reuel Parks, who supervised Wint at the facility before moving to a new position as the City of New Haven’s new violence prevention coordinator.

Anyone who witnessed this crime or who may have information valuable to the investigators is urged to phone police at 203 – 946-6304 or through the Department’s anonymous tip-line at 866 – 888-TIPS (8477).

Wint’s shooting death comes just three weeks into an exceptionally violent start to 2023.

On Jan. 1, a 23-year-old New Haven man named Dontae Myers was shot dead near Poplar Street and Grand Avenue in Fair Haven. On Jan. 6, a 41-year-old West Haven man named Charles Miller was shot and killed on Pond Lily Avenue. On Jan. 7, a 30-year-old New Havener named Kentel Robinson died from injuries he suffered when someone shot him repeatedly on Chapel Street between Beers and Orchard Streets on Jan. 4. And on Jan. 18, a 40-year-old man named Alexander Pedraza was shot and killed near River and James Streets in Fair Haven. 

Even though shooting deaths dropped 46 percent in 2022 compared to the year before, New Haven has now seen nine homicides over the past roughly two months. At a recent press conference, Police Chief Karl Jacobson said city cops believe they’ve identified the killers in four recent homicides, and that all four appear to be unrelated.