26-Year-Old Arrested for 2025 Murder of Dennis Atkinson

New Haven police arrested a 26-year-old man last week for the shooting death of 40-year-old Dennis Atkinson, who was killed on Ferry Street in the Fair Haven neighborhood nearly eight months ago. The arrest, announced at a press conference Thursday at police headquarters, closed a case that began with a dispute over a counterfeit $100 bill during a drug deal.

Atkinson was shot in the early morning hours of Aug. 18, 2025. Officers responded to 150 Ferry St. at around 4:44 a.m. following a ShotSpotter activation registering five gunshots. They found Atkinson suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m. that afternoon.

Police made the arrest on April 3.

Acting Police Chief David Zannelli, Mayor Justin Elicker, and Lt. Derek Gartner stood alongside more than a dozen of Atkinson’s family members and friends at 1 Union Ave. to announce the arrest. Zannelli credited Det. Michael Haines and now-retired Det. Jessica Stone with cracking the case.

A Community Figure

Atkinson wasn’t an anonymous victim. He had worked for the Town Green Special Services District as a Downtown Ambassador, a position that put him face-to-face with New Haven residents and visitors daily. His obituary described it as “a role that perfectly suited his outgoing personality and love for connecting with people.” Anyone who spent time downtown knew him, or at least recognized his laugh.

“Every day I just want to hear his voice,” his sister Charlene said through tears at the press conference. She talked about his smile, his hugs, his laughter. Not abstractions. Specific things she can’t get back.

His obituary called him “family-oriented and down to earth, with a natural gift for humor that made him unforgettable.” That’s the kind of language families reach for when words feel inadequate.

What the Warrant Says

A nine-page arrest warrant affidavit, written by Haines on April 2 and obtained by the New Haven Independent, lays out the alleged sequence of events. Zannelli described the shooting as stemming from a “dispute over money.” The warrant goes further, pointing to a disagreement over a fake $100 bill used in a drug deal as the apparent trigger for the violence.

So a counterfeit bill. That’s what this came down to.

The suspect, a 26-year-old New Haven resident whose name has not been included in the publicly available summary of court proceedings at this stage, faces four charges: murder, carrying a pistol without a permit, criminal possession of a pistol/revolver, and criminal possession of a firearm and ammunition. He has not entered pleas to any of the charges. He is being held on a $2.5 million bond.

The Investigation

The ShotSpotter acoustic gunfire detection system triggered the initial police response, picking up five shots fired before any human caller reached 911. That technology has been central to New Haven’s response infrastructure for years, though its broader use in American cities has drawn ongoing scrutiny from civil liberties advocates. In this case, it got officers to Ferry Street fast.

Still, the arrest took nearly eight months. Det. Stone, who worked the case before retiring, didn’t see it through to the end. Haines carried it across the finish line. Zannelli made a point of naming both of them.

What Comes Next

The suspect will face arraignment proceedings in state court. Given the $2.5 million bond, he’s likely to remain in custody. Murder cases in Connecticut can take a year or more to move through the court system, meaning Atkinson’s family faces a long road before any resolution.

Fair Haven has dealt with gun violence that stretches back years, and Ferry Street sits in one of the neighborhood’s busier corridors. For residents there, an arrest like this matters, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Atkinson is gone or that the violence that took him was rooted in something as small and sad as a fake bill.

Charlene Atkinson stood in front of cameras at police headquarters and thanked detectives for their work. She still wants to hear her brother’s voice. That part doesn’t change with an arrest.