Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin is crediting police for quick progress in the investigations of back-to-back homicides in the city Wednesday.
Police have recovered an assault rifle they believe to be connected to a scene that Chief Jason Thody calls one of the most heartbreaking he's experienced. An innocent woman, Sylvia Cordova, 56, was struck and killed by a stray bullet while she was in her home, cooking.
The body was discovered when police checked the home after gunshots were reported. No suspects have been identified.
Mayor Bronin says not only is the random gunfire alarming, the type of weapon used has no business being on the streets.
"That an assault rifle went through a home and killed a woman cooking dinner," says Bronin, "demonstrates powerfully why when we talk about the need for an assault weapons ban nationally, it really, really matters."
Minutes after Cordova's late afternoon death, there was another shooting in the capital that turned out to be deadly. On Kent St., according to Chief Thody, Trelique Ward, 22, and Aubrey Perry, 35, shot each other during an apparent drug deal.
Ward, of East Hartford, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Perry is hospitalized in stable condition, and is under arrest and charged with murder. He's being held on $1.2 million bail.