Hartford gang member who fired on police officer but missed will be charged with murder of another woman hours earlier, police say

A Hartford gang member who opened fire on and narrowly missed a young Hartford police officer early Tuesday morning has been charged with attempted murder and is expected to also be charged with the murder of a 53-year-old Hartford woman fatally shot a few hours earlier.

Jose Cajigas, 31, was apprehended trying to run from the parking lot where he shot into the officer’s marked police cruiser after she was able to pull away to safety while still radioing his location to the other responding officers, police officials said Tuesday afternoon, hailing the officer as a hero.

The officer, who was not identified publicly Tuesday, sustained only cuts from the shattered glass of her cruiser’s driver’s side window after the bullet missed her. She returned to police headquarters after seeing doctors at a nearby hospital to help detectives with the documentation for Cajiga’s charges, police Chief Jason Thody said Tuesday afternoon.

Cajigas was charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a firearm and unlawful discharge for shooting at the officer and then already was a person of interest in the murder of Catherine Hays, 53, who was found dead inside a Spring Street apartment Monday afternoon.

A forensic analysis finished Tuesday afternoon revealed the shell casing found at the scene of the officer’s shooting matched the casing found at the scene of Hayes’ death and police now plan to charge Cajigas with murder in the Hays case, Thody said.

“By saving herself, she likely saved other officers and other members of the community if this individual was still at large. … The work she did and the reaction she had is so impressive,” Thody said. “I can’t say enough about her strength, her courage and what she did.”

The incident with the officer began at about 1:30 a.m. when she was on a directed patrol in her marked police cruiser in the parking lot of 1921 Main St., about a mile away from the scene of Hays’ death hours earlier, police said. A man approached her car and, believing he was intoxicated or in need of medical help, the officer requested an ambulance to the parking lot.

Instead, the man “without provocation” drew a firearm and fired through the driver’s side window of the cruiser — narrowly missing her with the bullet but shattering glass into the officer’s face, Lt. Aaron Boisvert said.

The officer pulled the car forward while the man ran but she was still able to see him and directed other responding officers to him, who captured him not far away without further incident. Officers also recovered the firearm used at the scene.

Mayor Luke Bronin and Hartford Police Union President Anthony Rinaldi lauded the officers’ actions and Rinaldi called her a hero. She has been on the force for less than two years, Thody added.

“She showed extraordinary presence of mind and courage after having been fired upon to maneuver her vehicle safely and to keep eyes on the individual who did this while radioing for backup and helping to coordinate the arrest of this individual after the attack,” Bronin said. “That is incredible professionalism, incredible commitment, incredible courage.”

Cajigas is believed to be affiliated with the Los Solidos and a mug shot photo from an arrest last month shows he has a letters associated with the gang cut into the hair on the right side of his head.

He was identified as a person of interest shortly after Hays was found dead at about 4 p.m., when police were called for a report that a woman may have overdosed or sustained another medical problem. The Spring Street apartment building where she was found is just three blocks from the Hartford police headquarters and a mile from where Cajigas shot at the officer later that night.

Police officials released few other details about that case Tuesday, but Thody indicated investigators already had reason to believe Cajigas was involved. The forensic match on the shell casings “sealed the deal” for detectives to seek a judge’s approval for a warrant charging him with murder as soon as Wednesday, he said.

Cajigas already has a lengthy criminal record with more than a dozen arrests in Hartford and was arrested just 11 days ago on weapons, narcotics and violation of probation charges, police said.

Cajigas was ordered held on $270,000 bond after that arrest but was able to quickly post more than $19,000 in cash that Friday night to secure his release before he could be presented in open court the following week, police and court records detailed.

That raises dire questions about Connecticut’s bond system, Thody and Bronin said, and both suggested Tuesday evening that Cajigas should have been held without bond until his case could have been reviewed further.

“Eleven days ago our police officers arrested this individual for illegal possession of a firearm,” Bronin said. “He remained out. Yesterday he murdered somebody and attempted to assassinate a police officer … We need to have a serious conversation about how that’s possible.”

Cajigas remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of a $2.5 million bond for his new charges.

Hays’ death was the 30th homicide recorded in Hartford so far this year — the most since 2015, which had 32 murders total, with two full months still left on the 2021 calendar. The capital city remains on pace to record one of its deadliest years since 1985, rivaled only by the late 80s and early 90s when homicides peaked nationwide and gang wars raged and in 2003, when an arson at the Greenwood Health Center killed 16 in a single night.

The spike in homicides is not isolated to Hartford, however, and corresponds to large increases in deadly violence seen in cities large and small across the country since the COVID-19 pandemic began even as other types of crime have continued a decadeslong fall to historic lows.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com.