HARTFORD, Connecticut — A rash of shootings has led police to look at new ways to fight crime and a vigil from one family has turned to a call to stop the violence.
Family members of 28-year-old Cleveland Byfield gathering at the scene of his murder on Maple Ave and Retreat Avenue to honor his memory.
Rosemarie Wright, who is the mother of the victim, said, "He was a good kid, he was a protector, you know he just wanted everyone to get along. He loved his family, his kids that's all he wanted, he just wanted everybody to be peaceful. You know he wanted to take care of everybody."
Byfield died last week after being shot and according to police the motive behind the fatal shooting is still unknown and at this time, no arrests have been made.
The family says they are trying their best to stay strong while police investigate.
Tatianna Byfield said, "His daughter, his son... his nephews they're not going to understand they're too young to understand, but when they get older, we're going to have to go back and explain what happened to him and that's going to hurt when they ask where my daddy is, where is my uncle?"
Byfield's death was the third last week.
The violence not ending with Byfield’s death, the capital city has seen another five shootings within the past week.
Hartford has seen 14-shootings so far this year which is just on par with this time last year where the city had logged 13-shootings.
Police noting the uptick in violence commenting on the ones just this past week.
LT. Aaron Boisvert with the Hartford Police Department said, "At this time there is no indication that these are related, they all look like they were from people that knew each other."
According to police, they are looking at solutions to tackle the increased gun violence.
LT. Boisvert said, "There is a model out that Denver Police Department is using that the chief is looking at and that we might implement here. And what is consist of is a shooting team that would be assigned to major crimes and they would respond to a shooting just as the homicide detectives now are responding to a homicide, but I think the thought behind it is we can put just as much attention into non-fatal shootings as which we do as we would the homicides, we can focus our efforts on them, maybe we would have a better arrest rate or better solvability rate on them as well."
Community activists say they are not surprised we are on par from last year's shootings and urge people to act.
Rev. Henry Brown said, "This is your community, this is your city take your city back, stop being cowards and get to the point, and we had enough and let's take Hartford back to what it used to be."
For families that have been affected by the spike in violence, they say they will get through this together.
Byfield said, "We're going to make sure that everybody stays together and we're going to be one big happy family for him."
At this time, there is no timeline set for the shooting task force, but Hartford police say that if anyone has any information regarding any of the shootings we have mentioned in this report and others to contact them immediately.