13-Year-Old Charged In 15-Year-Old’s Murder

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — City police have arrested a 13-year-old boy for allegedly shooting and killing 15-year-old Career High School student Kaiden Phillips in Newhallville on Sept. 27.

Police Chief Karl Jacobson, Asst. Chief David Zannelli, and Mayor Justin Elicker announced that arrest Friday afternoon during a press conference on the third floor of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.

Jacobson said that police made the arrest on Friday morning at the residence of the 13-year-old suspect, and not at his school. Zannelli said that the 13-year-old has been charged with murder.

Jacobson explained that state law prohibits any arrestee under the age of 15 from being presented in adult court. Therefore, this suspect’s case will head to juvenile court, which will ultimately decide if the suspect is guilty, and, if so, his resulting sentence, including supervision, monitoring, and length of detention.

Jacobson said that “video evidence and community support” helped lead officers to make an arrest. He said that police — with the help of the city’s Youth and Recreation Department (YARD), Project Longevity, the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program, School Resource Officers, and New Haven Public Schools — spoke to 100 kids as part of this investigation, and in an effort to keep people safe and prevent potential retaliation.

Jacobson praised Det. Radim Kunz as the lead investigator on this case.

This is “not something we’re celebrating, when we have a 13-year-old that shot a 15-year-old,” Jacobson said at Friday’s somber press conference. “We don’t want any other lives ruined.” His main message to the public, and especially to young New Haveners: “Don’t pick up guns. If you pick up a gun, we will identify you and arrest you.”

Kaiden’s shooting death was the city’s 14th homicide of the year so far. Police believe Kaiden was fatally shot while on the campus of Lincoln-Bassett School on a Saturday night when no events were taking place at the school. Police later found him injured nearby on Butler Street.

Jacobson and Zannelli declined to say whether or not police had found a weapon associated with this homicide.

Jacobson said that the 13-year-old arrestee was known to police prior to this shooting. He said that the 13-year-old lives in New Haven, but otherwise declined to provide any other identifying information. New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spokesperson Justin Harmon, meanwhile, told the Independent on Friday that he believes the suspect is not a NHPS student.

Jacobson also said Friday that the suspect and the victim knew each other, and that a fight appears to have preceded this homicide. Asked about a fight at a football game that Jacobson had mentioned at an initial press conference after Kaiden’s homicide, Jacobson said police have not yet directly connected that football game fight to the shooting.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.