Arrest made in fatal shooting of Zayon Collier, a case tied to 3 other murders in Hartford this summer, records show
A Hartford man was arrested this week in connection with the murder of 25-year-old Zayon Collier, whose August slaying was among a series of four murders in the capital city this summer all within the same group of close friends and family.
Mark Outlaw, 22, was charged with accessory to murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the fatal shooting that was the 24th of the city’s 29 murders so far this year, already one of the most violent over the past decade with almost three months still to go.
Investigators believe Collier was gunned down at about 12:40 a.m. Aug. 4 inside his Blue Hills Avenue apartment — the night before he was supposed to serve as a pallbearer at the funeral of his friend, 21-year-old Brian Oliver, who was murdered a few blocks away in his home two weeks earlier, according to new court records.
Police who initially responded to reports of shots fired that night did not immediately find evidence of gunfire and therefore did not enter Collier’s large apartment building at the time. It was not until midday, when residents found bullet holes in the common stairwell and Collier failed to show up for Oliver’s funeral, that officers entered Collier’s apartment and found him dead, records show.
A witness account and nearby surveillance footage led police to Outlaw’s vehicle, which had been seen near Collier’s apartment at the time of the shooting, and officers stopped Outlaw in that same car when they spotted it on Albany Avenue the following day, records show.
Outlaw told police he had been staying at a Motel 6 in Windsor Locks the night of the murder, though hotel staff later told police he had not been at the facility that night, records show.
An investigation into Collier’s murder is ongoing and police would not release further information about the case Friday.
Collier’s death was the third of four murders in just two months to devastate a group of close friends and family in the capital city’s Upper Albany neighborhood.
Before Collier and Oliver’s murders, 22-year-old Trelique Ward was killed in a shootout June 9 during an apparent busted drug deal at a Kent Street home, previous court records detailed. Aubrey Perry, 35, opened fire on Ward during the transaction and was wounded when Ward returned fire and drove himself to Saint Francis Hospital.
Perry was arrested at the hospital that day and charged with murder and criminal possession of a firearm. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody in lieu of a $1.25 million bond.
Oliver, a close friend of Ward’s brother, was shot and killed outside a home on Irving Street about six weeks later, just a week after his 21st birthday, according to friends and court records. No one has been charged in connection with Oliver’s death.
Collier died two weeks later and friends described a heart-wrenching day leaving Oliver’s funeral to go straight to an impromptu vigil mourning Collier, still clad in the custom shirts they made to memorialize Oliver.
The bloodshed continued just five days later when members of Collier’s extended family got into a fight after an evening planning his funeral on Aug. 9, court records released this summer revealed.
During the evening a friend of Collier’s tried to tell 35-year-old Tanoah Jones, an extended family member, that Troy Reid, his 29-year-old brother-in-law, had been involved in Collier’s death, records show. Reid was incensed and fought that night Jones, who shot him 15 times during the confrontation.
Jones’ wife called 911 to report the shooting and police found Jones cleaning up blood on the floor when they arrived, records show. He directed officers out back where Reid’s body was wrapped in a white sheet in the back of an SUV parked behind the house.
Jones was arrested and charged with murder and he admitted to investigators he had fired on Reid during the confrontation. Despite the accusations that led to the fight, the new warrant affidavit released in Outlaw’s case that details the investigation into Collier’s killing makes no mention of Reid.
With the charges against Outlaw this week, Hartford detectives have made at least one arrest in 14 of the 29 homicide cases so far this year, plus several more arrests this year in connection to 2020 homicides.
Outlaw was ordered held in lieu of a $1.5 million bond and remained in custody Friday, court records show.
The increase in homicides in Hartford this year tracks with increases seen in communities large and small across the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has put the capital city on pace for one of its deadliest years since 1985.
Even as the weather cools, when violent crime traditionally dips from highs in the hot summer months, Harford is on pace to surpass the 32 murders recorded in all of 2015 before the end of the year. That could make 2021 the third deadliest year in decades, behind only 55 murders recorded in 1994 at the height of the city’s gang wars and the 44 murders recorded in 2003, when an arson at the Greenwood Health Center killed 16 in a single night.
Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.
