A 40-year-old Hartford man is dead and a 40-year-old Coventry woman has been injured in a double shooting in Hartford early Tuesday morning.
Police said the shooting happened on Lenox Street, between Albany Avenue and Greenfield Street, at 4:15 a.m. Officers patrolling the area after a separate complaint heard several gunshots coming from Lenox Street and found two victims in front of 39 Lenox Street.
William King, 40, of Hartford, was shot several times and pronounced dead at Saint Francis Hospital at 4:46 a.m. He is the 21st homicide victim in the city this year.
The female victim, Jennifer Ryan, 40, of Coventry, was shot in the calf and is expected to survive.
The number of homicides in the city this year has already surpassed the total number last year. In all of 2014, 19 people were killed in Hartford.
"There seems to be a trend here that is very difficult for us to have control over," Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra said after arriving at the crime scene. "The question always arises -- whether you can prevent these types of homicide."
Segarra has called for more resources for police, but said it's unclear whether political action can stop this type of street violence.
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He is focusing on the national gun control issue and said the problem might not rest on his administration’s shoulders because the city has had significantly more violent years in the past.
“We’ve had an increasing more number of homicides before my watch,” Segarra said. “The reality is that access to guns and the rate at which guns are finding their way into our community continues at a very alarming pace.”
Police are investigating.