City teen arrested in Dec. 24 shooting

By William Kaempffer
Register Staff
NEW HAVEN — A 16-year-old city youth has been arrested in the Christmas Eve shooting of another teen he had known since childhood.
Police school resource officers picked up Jaray Turner at school Tuesday morning on a warrant charging him with shooting Gary Coleman, also 16, in the abdomen as the victim walked to his grandmother’s house on Dec. 24.
Turner was being held Tuesday in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Coleman was discharged from the hospital Thursday, a day before a judge signed the warrant for Turner, after undergoing multiple surgeries.
Having the gunman still at large, especially with her son home, weighed on the mind of Coleman’s mother, LaShawn McCoy, 43.
"I’m just glad he’s caught. I’m glad that this kid is off the street," said McCoy. "I don’t want no harm to come to him. I’m not even angry at the kid. I just want justice done.
"I want justice done because you can’t go around just shooting people."
Whatever transpired between her son and Turner, McCoy said, "No kid deserves this, (something so) drastic to his family on Christmas Eve."
Police Officer Stephan Torquati, who is assigned to the detective division, led the investigation.
Turner and Coleman have known each other most of their lives, and had an ongoing dispute brewing, said police Sgt. Marc Calafiore.
Turner allegedly hit Coleman on the head with a brick at the beginning of the school year and the two exchanged online threats on MySpace, the social networking Web site, police said.
"It ended up with this kid getting shot and almost killed on Dec. 24," said Calafiore.
Police detained Turner at Gateway Learning Academy, the public school he attends, police said.
He faces charges of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, unlawful discharge and carrying a pistol without a permit.
Coleman was shot on Landers Street, not far from his grandmother’s house.
While the shooting appears to have been personal, some of the underlying tension may be rooted in neighborhood feuds: While Turner lives in Newhallville, police said, he identifies with the Tre, the nickname for the Dwight-Kensington neighborhood across town through which youths have had an ongoing feud with their counterparts in Newhallville.
While Calafiore stressed police had no evidence that Coleman was associated with any gang, he said the neighborhood beef may have fueled animosity.
"Turner ‘represents’ the Tre. That’s where he hangs out. The other kid lives in Newhallville. There’s been a long-standing dispute between the factions."
Police don’t believe it was a chance encounter on Christmas Eve. "We believe that he (Turner) sought him out," said Calafiore.
Turner turned 16 on Monday, a day before his arrest.
Coleman turned 16 in the hospital, while recovering from surgery, when most kids are looking at getting a driver’s license.
"Not anytime soon," McCoy said of that prospect for her son.