Mom Watched Shot Son Dying In Street

Paul Bass Photo

Latasha Brown at homicide site vigil with photo of son Tashawn, 18.

Mom!” Tashawn Brown called out.

Latasha Brown rushed over across the street, horrified at what she saw.

It was Wednesday night, just before 8. Latasha Brown was in Edgewood Park with her family and friends at a cookout when gunshots rang out.

One of those shots hit her 18-year-old son Tashawn. He collapsed across from the park, by the side of Ella Grasso Boulevard, between Edgewood Avenue and Stanley Street.

Others rushed over, too, along with Latasha. A nurse materialized and tried to keep Tashawn alive, Latasha later recalled.

Tashawn Brown.

An ambulance crew arrived, took Tashawn to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was New Haven’s 12th homicide victim already this year, the third in five days.

I watched it. His brothers and sisters watched it,” Latasha said during a conversation late Thursday afternoon at a vigil at the same spot.

Latasha, a mother of eight, said she knows who shot her son. She named him.

The gathering in the park was to commemorate the birthday and celebrate the life of her cousin Charles, who she said recently died of Covid. His funeral is scheduled for this Saturday.

During that commemoration, another young man got in an argument with one of her sons. Latasha said they had previously had a beef. That young man, she said, is the son of Charles’s girlfriend.

The argument turned into a fistfight. Worried, Latasha said, she directed her children to leave the scene. Later, when the scene calmed down, she called Tashawn and said he could come back.

He did. So did the shooter. He sprayed bullets. One of them hit Tashawn.

Friends and family pay tribute to Tashawn Brown late Thursday afternoon at Ella Grasso Boulevard homicide site.

Tashawn, while not a saint,” was a kind spirit,” Latasha said. She said Tashawn had graduated high school and had a scholarship to attend Porter & Chester technical school.

And that’s all she said. Another teen walked up and directed the conversation to end, and a reporter to leave.

911 Caller Shaken

Paul Bass Photo

Tachica Callahan, who called 911 as she watched Tashawn Brown struggle for life on the Boulevard: “I’m done. I’m moving.”

Multiple 911 callers as well as a report from ShotSpotter alerted police to the shooting Wednesday evening.

One of the 911 callers, Tachica Callahan, watched Brown struggle for life. She described what happened in a subsequent interview with the Independent.

Callahan, who lives across from Edgewood Park on the Boulevard between Edgewood and Stanley, had just returned home when the shooting took place. She and her son had gone to the TD Bank downtown, then picked up her daughter from a hair salon. The kids went inside. She noticed a gathering in the park, a crowd barbecuing and socializing.

Callahan was still in her driveway, in her car, checking her phone, when she heard gunshots.

There were so many shots. Pop! Pop! Pop! My natural instinct was to duck.”

So she did, until the gunfire ceased and she heard squealing car tires.

She looked up, saw the young man in the street. She ran to her porch and dialed 911.

Then she watched as some people were pressing on Brown’s mid-section until an ambulance arrived.

He was pushing people’s hands off him; he was in a frantic state. His eyes were open; he was going in and out,” she recalled.

Thursday morning, Callahan, who is 39, cycled through a series of emotions as she recalled what she saw.

I’m scared. I have a son who’s 15. I have a daughter who’s 18,” she said.

I’m fucking angry. That’s how I feel. Angry. I don’t know what is wrong with these young boys. I don’t know what they want. Money? Turf?

I blame Black older men too: You started it, the turf wars.

And the guns: The Caucasian men. They manufactured them. They scratched the serial numbers. They came into the African-American community.”

Ultimately, Callahan said, I’m done. I’m moving.”

Where?

As far as possible I can get from the city of New Haven. This is going to go on all summer. You never forget the images. You never forget the bodies.”

We Have To Do Something!”

Thomas Breen Photo

Stacy Spell: Time again to “occupy the space.”

By coincidence, also Wednesday evening, a similar discussion about New Haven’s violence woes was taking place nearby (or online) at the monthly Hill South Community Management Team meeting.

The debate involved Stacy Spell of West River, a retired police detective who heads up the federal-state-local anti-violence program Project Longevity; public defender Andrew Giering; and longtime Hill activist Johnny Dye.

Here are excerpts from the discussion:

Spell: New Haven police are doing a great job with drug and firearm seizures … but the court system has things that need to be fixed.

Some people are just going to continue to do bad things They make bail, are let out, and do bad things.

We have to hold our elected officials, state reps, court officials, and ourselves accountable. Whatever you want to do: a clean-up, a talk, a movie … We need to do things to calm this community…

Giering: All studies show that locking people up does not deter crime.

Our laws are extraordinarily harsh, racially disparate, and thank God, there’s a bipartisan movement to move away from those policies.

I don’t know what reforms you’re envisioning. Maybe judges letting people out on bond? The tough on crime era is ending. Let’s not rail against history.

I’m a federal public defender. If you are caught with a firearm, you go to jail for five years. That’s extraordinarily strict.

Dye: To this federal defender: I’m all for justice, but we’re out on the street here. You don’t allow someone with the convictions, and before the cop can write the report, they’re out on street.

You don’t allow people out on the street. You don’t give a blanket ticket. We have to live here and feel safe.

Here’s an example: We started a block watch because we had so much shooting. We did everything with the kids, but the system is too soft on the kids. We are allowing these kids to get away with too damn much.

If we don’t do anything about the violence in the street, we’re going to have total war.

Spell: Let’s be clear, we do have a catch and release protocol, not only juveniles. They’re raising holy hell. I’m not going to have my neighbors living in fear over a minority of people who are looking to have nefarious and criminal activity …

All I’m saying is we need to do more. People have been arrested on federal charges and are still out on the street. Something is wrong.

I want to be fair. But if you are a sociopath inciting violence on our community, there is a problem.

Years ago when we had an uptick in violence, we planted flowers. Guess what? You can’t sell drugs or do violence when 20 people are planting flowers and playing chess

I call it occupying the space.’

Look at Lamberton and Arthur. That has always been a problem. But if we get this church to be there one day to play, and another to clean up … We need to disrupt the violence, clean ups, films. Occupy the space. Deter the criminal activity.

We courted the community to report sightings to the police. You have power from behind the curtain.

We have to do something! The time to watch the boys battle and the guns come out — that time is over. It entails our working together no in words but deeds. Show up and sweat with me.

3 Homicides In 5 Days; 12th This Year

Police do not at this point believe the homicide is related to two others that took place this past week.

Tashawn Brown’s homicide was the 12th so far in 2021 in New Haven.

In January, Alfreda Youmans, 50, and Jeffrey Dotson, 42, were found dead by the police inside a Winthrop Avenue apartment, Jorge Osorio-Caballero, 32, was shot and killed in Fair Haven, Marquis Winfrey, 31, was shot and killed in Newhallville, and Joseph Vincent Mattei, 28, was shot and killed in the Hill. Someone shot Kevin Jiang, 26, to death in Goatville on Feb. 6. Angel Rodriguez, 21, was shot to death in Fair Haven in mid-February, his body dumped by the Mill River in East Rock. Dwaneia Alexandria Turner, 28, was shot to death in the Hill on March 16 during an argument with two other women.

On March 26, Alessia Mesquita was shot dead in Fair Haven. Then 20-year-old Mariyah Inthirath was killed Saturday, May 15, on Sheffield Avenue and Hopeton Jack was killed near Orchard and George on Tuesday, May 18.

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