Lance Morales, 23, of Waterbury was extradited to Connecticut over the weekend and arraigned Monday in Hartford Superior Court during a tense hearing that concluded with an outburst from a family member of the victims. The two individuals who survived the shooting, the driver of the vehicle and a man in his 20s who suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, spoke to investigators after the incident and separately identified Morales as the shooter in a photo lineup, the warrant affidavit said.
The driver, who was not injured, told police Mercado was in the front passenger seat of a Mazda CX with her son in a car seat directly behind her in the backseat. The other man in the Mazda was behind the driver. After leaving a store in the area of Hillside Avenue, the driver said they noticed someone in a white Infiniti who passed them and tried to block them in at the intersection of Broad and Clifford streets, according to the warrant affidavit.
The driver was unable to get away from the Infiniti, which had dark tinted windows that prevented the occupants of the Mazda from figuring out who was driving. Police wrote in the warrant that emergency dispatchers at p. As the Mazda driver stopped at a traffic light on New Britain Avenue, the Infiniti driver pulled alongside and rolled his window down, according to the warrant affidavit.
The driver told police Mercado told them to drive off, at which point Morales allegedly began shooting with a gun that appeared to be equipped with an extended magazine, the warrant affidavit said. Hartford detectives were able to review video surveillance of the shooting, which included audio that led police to believe the firearm that was used was fully automatic, according to the warrant affidavit. Police wrote in the warrant that Mercado suffered gunshot wounds to her upper torso, while the child suffered a gunshot wound to his arm.
They were both pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital where the driver of the Mazda rushed after shots were fired. Staff at the hospital informed police of the shooting, which initially did not trigger a ShotSpotter activation. The third gunshot victim was also treated at the hospital, where doctors had at the time listed him in stable condition with a gunshot wound to his forearm, the warrant affidavit said.
