Residents of a Connecticut condominium complex said they heard gunshots followed by the sound of a car speeding away Thursday morning.
When Bridgeport police arrived, they found 23-year-old Brianna Destiny McKoy shot dead in the Coachlight Square condominium complex on Vincellette Street around 11:20 a.m. Thursday. An infant was in the home when McKoy was shot, but was not injured, police said.
“The baby was unharmed and appeared to be in good health,” Bridgeport Police Capt. Kevin Gilleran said Friday. The child is in a safe place, he said.
A manhunt has ensued for Derrick Francis, who police said was dating McKoy and is considered “armed and dangerous.” Police said Francis, who has an arrest record in New York, is known to frequent the North End of Bridgeport and the Bronx.
McKoy and Francis were in a dating relationship when she died, Gilleran said. Bridgeport police had been called in the past to deal with incidents involving the couple, he said.
Gilleran characterized McKoy’s death as a domestic violence homicide.
Police said Francis has black hair and brown eyes, is 5-foot-8 and weighs 170 pounds, according to the wanted poster.
Residents of the 161-unit complex off Vincellette said they don’t see police often, but that cops and emergency vehicles swarmed the area within minutes of shots being heard there Thursday, followed by a vehicle speeding away.
“That’s so sad,” Mary Halcott, who has lived at the complex nearly 20 years, said Friday when she heard about McKoy’s killing. “That’s awful … it must have been so frightening for her.”
Halcott said she wasn’t home at the time of the shooting, but saw police talking to neighbors when she returned to the complex later Thursday.
“I don’t know of any (prior) violence against anybody here,” Halcott said. “This is a very nice set of condos to live in. It’s pretty well-run and pretty quiet.”
Popular veteran music selector Ricky Trooper was on Thursday left questioning God’s existence, hours after his daughter was found murdered at her home.
“Mi used to hear dem thing yah happen to people and mi a say, ‘Yow, wonder why dem things yah happen?’, and mi wish say mi wouldn’t find myself in da position ya, but such is life.
“Dem say mi question the Almighty, … but sometime you affi wonder if God really deh still ‘cause more time when some something gwaan … but mi a hold it,” the selector, whose birth name is Garfield McKoy, said in a moving seven-minute live session on his Instagram page on Friday.
Anyone with information about McKoy’s death can call Detective Keith Hanson at 203-581-5243 or submit a tip to the Bridgeport Police Department’s tip line at 203-576-TIPS.
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