Grief Counseling Offered for Classmates of Slain New Haven Teen

Grief counselors will be available to help students begin to deal with the death of a 15-year-old classmate who was killed in New Haven over the weekend. 

Jacob Craggett, 15, of New Haven, was shot around 9 p.m. on Friday at Davenport Avenue and Vernon Street, and died at the hospital, according to police.

He would have been a sophomore at Hillhouse High School in the fall and was a member of the school’s football team.

“I am deeply saddened by the senseless killing of one of one our students this weekend. Jacob Craggett is deeply mourned by the entire New Haven Public School community and we will continue prioritizing our work with police, city and community partners on ways combat youth gun violence. The shootings have got to stop. My heart goes out to the family and friends of Jacob Craggett and I pray for the recovery of the other two victims, and all those touched by this tragedy,” Supt. Garth Harries said in a statement.

Family members said he had been visiting his grandmother’s house on Vernon Street and was heading home to make his 9 p.m. curfew.

Jacob and his 23-year-old brother, Joshua, were in a vehicle with two other people when the shooters approached them and started firing, according to police.

"When Jacob saw his brother was shot, he got out of the car, and one of the people shot my son in the back for trying to help his brother," the boys’ mother, Lisa Cragget, said. "For anyone to shoot the 15-year-old in the back, you're a coward. You're a coward."

Joshua and the driver of the vehicle are in the hospital in critical condition.

Grief counseling and support resources are being made available to students who knew Jacob as well as to the Hillhouse football team.

Lisa Cragget said she has questions about the police response time the night of the shooting. She said the ambulance took 35 minutes to arrive even though Yale New Haven Hospital is around the corner.

Police have not made any arrests in this case, and they're asking anyone with information to call detectives at 203-946-6316.
 

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