Hartford police on Wednesday identified the victims and a suspect in the drive-by shooting that left a young mother and her 4-month-old baby dead.
Jessiah Mercado, 20, and her son, Messiah Diaz, both of Springfield, Mass., were sitting in a car with two other people next to Thomas J. Hyland Memorial Park at around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when another driver pulled up alongside them and began shooting, police said.
Authorities believe the shooting was targeted and appeared to have been motivated by a dispute over a vehicle, Hartford Police Lt. Aaron Boisvert told the Stamford Advocate on Wednesday.
The driver of the car the victims were in brought them to Hartford Hospital, where mother and baby later died. The driver was unharmed, while a third person, a man in his 20s, was treated for a gunshot wound that was not life-threatening.
On Wednesday, police said they were seeking Lance “Macho” Morales, 23, in connection to the shooting. His last known address was in Waterbury. He was seen driving a white Infiniti Q70 with a possibly misused Massachusetts license plate reading 3NEB35, reported WTNH.
When he’s caught, Morales will be charged with two counts of murder, murder with special circumstances, criminal possession of a firearm, first-degree assault and first-degree criminal attempt to commit assault, according to an arrest warrant. His bond has already been set at $3 million.
Boisvert cautioned that Morales is “armed and extremely dangerous.”
Hartford Police Chief Kenny Powell addressed Morales directly in an afternoon press briefing.
“Lance, you have no other option but to hand yourself in to the Hartford Police Department for the horrific crimes that you have done,” he said, according to WVIT. “You see, this hit the heart of Hartford. You have taken the lives of an infant and his mother. We do not tolerate that in this city.”