Community Rallies Around Family Of Slain Hamden Teen

HAMDEN, CT — The community is rallying around the family of a 15-year-old boy who was shot and killed while walking home from school earlier this week.

Elijah Gomez, a student at Hamden High School, was identified by police as the victim of Monday’s fatal shooting along the Farmington Canal trail. Police responded to the Farmington Canal Linear Park, near Treadwell Street, around 2:30 p.m. on the report of shots fired. Officers found a gunshot victim on the canal line who later died of his injuries, according to Detective Sean J. Dolan.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help Gomez’s mother with funeral and memorial expenses. The campaign was created by Dominique Mellerson, Gomez’s aunt.

“Elijah was an intelligent kid with a promising future ahead of him,” Mellerson wrote in a post on the page. “Elijah lived at home with his mom and older brother. Elijah was a son, brother, grandson, nephew, friend, teammate, and lover with a passion for football #22. My nephew will genuinely be missed by the ones who loved him dearly.”

Police are continuing to investigate the shooting as a homicide.

New Deputy Police Chief Timothy Wydra, who is expected to take over the department as acting police chief on Monday, kept a focus on Gomez’s killing during his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.

"Elijah Gomez was taken from us in a vicious and cowardly act of violence," Wydra said, according to the New Haven Independent.

Wydra asserted that the incident should serve as an incentive for the police department to focus their energy on creating new strategies to "protect our greatest assets, our children."

More than $11,000 has been raised within the first two days of the GoFundMe campaign.

For more information, or to make a donation, visit the GoFundMe page here.

GoFundMe is a Patch promotional partner