A newly released arrest warrant details a violent struggle in late 2013 that left 18-year-old Javier Martinez dead in New Haven after he wrestled with another teen’s gun but was shot in a failed robbery.
It would take investigators five years to track down and charge the killer, 23-year-old Tyhitt Bember, who was 17 when the killing happened. Bember, who has been incarcerated since 2014 for other offenses, was charged in June 2019 with felony murder, attempted first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit.
Details of Bomber’s arrest were disclosed last week following a First Amendment challenge by The Courant and the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press of a 2019 state law that kept secret the court proceedings of juvenile matters transferred to adult court.