School buses and dozens of commuters drive past Shawn Venson’s Ford Street home in Ansonia each day on their way to drop children off at the nearby Prendergast or Mead schools.
They are all faced with the same question, written in black letters on a 4‑by-8-foot plywood sign:
“Who killed Daryl Venson?”
Shawn Venson put the sign up on his front lawn last month — hanging large photos of his son’s face below the question, and including the phone number for the Ansonia Police Department.
Venson figured: Why not?
He’s been faced with the same question every day — every minute — of the past year.
On March 9, 2011, somebody shot and killed his son, Daryl, outside of the GQ Mart on the corner of Root Avenue and Hill Street.
A week after Venson was fatally shot, a second Ansonia man — Isaia Hernandez — was shot and killed a few miles away, outside the Xtra Mart gas station on Wakelee Avenue.
Both murders remain unsolved.
“I could care less what people think about me,” Shawn Venson said recently, regarding the sign on his lawn. “I just want a little justice. That’s it. That’s all I want.”
No Answers
In the year after both murders, the families of the two victims have searched for answers, but found few.
Police last week said they have suspects in the cases but need to get more information before applying for arrest warrants.
“We are continuing with progress on both homicides,” Ansonia police Lt. Andrew Cota said.
“We’re very close on both,” Cota continued. “We’re extremely close to getting to a point where, hopefully, we can make an arrest. We’ve identified some very decent suspects in both cases.”
But the families of both victims are frustrated.
“I’m not blaming the police for what happened to my son,” Venson said. “I’m not blaming City Hall for what happened to my son. But I am concerned about how long it is taking. Of course I’m angry about how long it is taking.”
Venson said he has gone to the Ansonia Police Department at least 20 times over the past year. The police usually ask Venson if he’s heard anything, but give little in the way of updates, he said.
Myra Hernandez, the mother of Isaia Hernandez, said she calls the Ansonia Police Department weekly.
“It’s always the same story,” Hernandez said, quoting the line she hears. “We know who it is, but without evidence there’s nothing we can do.”
They are left clinging to the small bits of information they have — and trying to fill in the blanks about what happened in each shooting.
“They haven’t told me one thing about my son,” Venson said. “I don’t have (anything) on paper from the police about my kid getting shot in the street.”
The Murders
On March 9, 2011, Daryl Venson was shot in the back outside a corner store on Root Avenue and Hill Street. Police said five or six people were involved in some type of argument, and then Venson was shot.
Shawn Venson reasons that Daryl was trying to get away from the argument because he was shot in the back. But he’s left to wonder about the rest — like why his son was there, who the people around him were, and what they were fighting about.
“I know something happened to my son, but I don’t know more than that,” Venson said.
On March 16, 2011, Isaia Hernandez was shot while sitting in his girlfriend’s car in the parking lot of the Xtra Mart on Wakelee Avenue.
He was shot by other people sitting in the car with him. Hernandez’s family believed the murder was the result of a robbery gone bad.
“I don’t know if he knew (the suspects), or if he didn’t know them,” Myra Hernandez said. “I don’t know how far they went. I don’t know where they drove to before they came back to the gas station. I don’t know if they jumped into the car when my son stopped at the gas station.”
“All I know is he was on his way to school, and he was going to take the car for a brake job and a tune-up,” Hernandez said.
No Connection
Police do not suspect any connection between the shootings. The cases are linked only by timing — and personal similarities about the victims and their families.
Both victims were 25 years old, with young sons.
They were both working odd jobs, finding themselves as adults.
The families of both victims have been vocal about the lack of information.
Hernandez’s family hosted a press conference at the site of his murder last year — publicly asking for any help solving the crime.
Venson’s family has placed fliers around the city with his photo, offering a reward for information.
Shawn Venson hosted a large rally in August, calling attention to the violence in the community.
Article continues after photo gallery of the march.
And, recently, Venson put up the sign on his lawn.
“I live where every kid on a school bus got to come through here, every teacher got to come through here,” Venson said. “This is the main drag up here. And it only happened a quarter mile down the road.”
He hopes the sign will prompt someone to talk to police, and give them information to help the investigation.
“What else can I do?” Venson asked.
The Investigation
The pleas for information haven’t brought in new tips, Cota said last week.
“No one came forward with information, other than the information we received early on,” Cota said.
Police have continued talking to witnesses, and following up on information or evidence they find.
“We have spoken to everyone on scene. I can’t tell you how many names we’ve gone through,” Cota said. “We follow that lead, tracked down people, this person may have had information.”
The department has spent “hundreds” of hours on both cases.
In each case, police have two “solid” suspects.
But they continue to wait for physical evidence to come back from the state’s crime lab to help connect those people to the scene without a doubt.
The department has drafted arrest warrants for both cases, and detectives keep adding information as they get it.
However, neither warrant has been sent to court for a judge’s signature yet.
“I can type a warrant today and send it to court,” Cota said. “But if (the warrant is) not what they’re looking for, not enough, they’re going to send it back.”
The department is consulting with the states attorney’s office in Milford to make sure the warrant has all the correct information to ensure it gets signed when ready, Cota said.
“I would like nothing better than to tell Shawn and the Hernandez family we have warrants signed,” Cota said. “We’re not dragging our feet. We really can’t make it go faster.”
Daryl
“Daryl was my twin. Daryl was just like me,” Shawn Venson said recently, his eyes filling with tears.
Daryl, 25, grew up in Ansonia, playing football in youth leagues where his father coached.
But Daryl was more into music than sports, Shawn recalled. He was the kind of person who was always joking.
“He was just a goofball,” Shawn said.
Daryl Venson had his son, Montez, 5, when he was 20 years old.
“Most of the time, Daryl was by himself,” Shawn Venson said. “He had his son, and he was going to get his son on weekends.”
Montez visits Shawn’s house often now, where he stays in Daryl’s old bedroom. The walls are lined with reward posters seeking information about who killed Daryl Venson.
“He doesn’t know the details, but he knows somebody shot his dad,” said Cassie Venson, Shawn’s wife.
And when Shawn Venson drives around town with Montez, he can see the child looking out the window at the signs posted around town.
“I know he sees the signs, and he’s got a look on his face, and I know he’s thinking,” Shawn Venson said. “And it sucks. It’s terrible.”
‘Ike’
Isaia Hernandez had been living in Ansonia for a couple years, after growing up in Long Island and Florida.
He came north to live with his girlfriend and help raise their son, Jisaiah, who will be 3 years old next month.
“He loved that boy more than anything in the world,” Myra Hernandez said. “He was with him everyday.”
Hernandez was 25 years old, working odd jobs and trying to finish a program to learn to be a mechanic, his mother said.
“He wanted to get his license so he could open up a shop with his father,” Myra Hernandez said.
Friends called him ‘Ike.’
In Florida, Hernandez was popular. Myra Hernandez didn’t know much about who her son was hanging around with in Ansonia.
But she said he wasn’t involved in anything bad.
“My son wasn’t like that,” Myra Hernandez said.
“He was real outgoing,” she said. “He was a good person. He was easy to get along with.”
Remembering, But Trying To Forget
Shawn Venson and Myra Hernandez said they each celebrated their son’s 26th birthday this year.
“I had some balloons on the mailbox that said Happy Birthday,” Shawn Venson said.
The Hernandez family had a party for Isaia, “even though he wasn’t here,” Myra Hernandez said.
The Hernandez family plans to host a candle-light vigil in Florida, where they live, on March 16.
Isaia’s girlfriend and son have moved down there after the shooting.
The family has no plans to come back to Connecticut.
“I don’t think I could ever go back up there,” Myra Hernandez said. “It’s jut not good for me.”
For that reason, Shawn Venson said he wasn’t going to do anything to mark the one-year anniversary of his son’s death.
“I don’t want to remember the date,” Venson said. “I don’t want to remember what happened.”
