Britt Prawat

So when Javid did pass, they were able to take a look at the bullet that killed him and determine that it was a .38 caliber. It wasn't a golden ticket right away. Police couldn't immediately link it to any particular firearm. But a month later, that would change. And the bullet would suddenly become the most solid lead for investigators in Javid's case.

About 30 days after Javid died, police in New Britain, Connecticut, got a call that a local department store had just been robbed. Their potential suspects had allegedly fled the scene in a car that New Britain police put out Ebola for. Now, New Britain is about 30 miles from East Windsor, so detectives investigating Javid's murder didn't have this on their radar. Yet.

But almost right away, police in the town of Newington, which is right next to New Britain, heard that Bolo and saw the same car driving through their town. So they went lights and sirens on these guys and pulled them over. Inside the car was a group of men, including a guy we'll call Tyrone and a guy we'll call Mike.

Now, quick side note here, we're using pseudonyms at law enforcement's request so that we don't compromise their investigation, which is heating up as we speak. So Mike, one of the guys in the car, had a gun on him, a Colt .38 revolver. And Mike had gotten into some legal trouble before.

He'd been arrested on some charges for criminal trespass and larceny, along with an arrest for the robbery of a pizza delivery worker. And he was on probation at this point, so he wasn't allowed to have a gun. In fact, he and Tyrone were both known to carry weapons illegally and get in trouble with police.

Detective Roberts told our reporters that Tyrone had a criminal history that involved illegally carrying guns and committing robberies. So after they were pulled over, Mike was arrested for violating his probation, and that revolver he had was sent off to the state forensics lab, where they performed a test fire. They ran the results to see if the bullet from this gun hit to any other crimes.

And bingo, two unrelated incidents were suddenly connected. That gun Mike had, it seemed, at least at first, that it was the literal smoking gun for detectives over in East Windsor. Because forensic testing showed that this was, without a doubt, the gun that was used in Javid's murder. So, obviously, the detectives in East Windsor took a hard look at Mike.

And it turned out that police in yet another town were looking at him too. Detectives in Manchester, Connecticut suspected Mike and his buddy Tyrone were involved in another robbery. This robbery was in Manchester on the evening of February 28th, just two hours before Javid was killed and only 30 minutes away from Javid's store.

Just before 8.30 that night, a man called police in Manchester to report that he'd been walking down the street with a friend when two young black men, one in a dark hoodie, one in a lighter colored jacket, came up to them and pulled out a revolver. One of the robbers demanded that the man hand over his cell phone and ask if he had any cocaine.

The man told the robber he didn't have any drugs and refused to just hand over his phone. That didn't go over well. The robber put the revolver up to the man's head and cocked the gun. Then he shoved the man to the ground and started going through his pockets, stealing his Motorola Razr flip phone, $7 in cash, and his hair pick.

Both victims told police that the second robber seemed stressed when his friend cocked the gun and told him to cut it out, and he used a nickname for his accomplice. Now, detectives didn't want to reveal what that nickname was, but they did say that it is pretty close, like just one letter off from a nickname that one of Tyrone's and Mike's friends is known to go by.

The victims weren't able to describe the robbers in too much detail because they were both wearing ski masks. But they told police that they ran off and hopped into a dark-colored SUV. So, these guys were wearing a dark hoodie and a light jacket, carrying a revolver, and were taking off in a dark SUV. Sound familiar? Yeah.

It turned out that stolen Razor's cell phone provided another clue about who these guys might be. Manchester police pulled the records for the phone and saw that someone had made an outgoing call right after the robbery, a call the victim confirmed he didn't make. Someone had used his phone after it was stolen. And who had they called? Mike. Mike.

Knowing that, detectives in East Windsor went on high alert. I mean, two guys who were at least in contact with Mike, with similar descriptions to the suspects in Javid's shooting, who were potentially out committing another robbery that same night not too far away, and now they somehow had the gun used in Javid's homicide? These have got to be their guys, right?

But before the East Windsor police could reach that conclusion with confidence, they needed to place Mike, Tyrone, and that unnamed friend in East Windsor that night. And more specifically, at the one-stop. So they start tracking down people they hung out with. And guess where some of those people lived? That's right. Mill Pond Village. Here's what the chief told our reporter.

Okay, so you don't necessarily know that they were in Mill Pond that night, but they know people that live there?

So it's not out of the question that they went from the robbery in Manchester right over to East Windsor, calling friends there while they were on their way. When our reporters asked Detective Roberts whether there was any cell tower data that they could have used to prove they were there, he said he didn't think police were pulling that kind of data back in 2007.

He hadn't seen any records in the case file and thought if those records existed and placed Mike or Tyrone at the scene of Javid's murder, there likely would have been an arrest by now. Detective Roberts did tell our reporters that police were able to ask Mike where he was the night Javid was shot. They talked to him a few times while he was trying to negotiate a deal on that gun charge.

Detective Roberts didn't detail exactly what Mike said when they talked to him, but he said Mike definitely never admitted to being involved in Javid's murder. And he also didn't point the finger at anyone else. Unfortunately, their talks with Mike end kind of abruptly when he was sentenced to another 40 months in prison for violating his probation by having that gun.

Once that happened, he stopped cooperating. And Tyrone, on the other hand, refused to ever sit down with investigators. Now, if you're like me, you're probably thinking, how on earth was there not enough evidence to bring these guys in? I mean, they were literally caught red-handed with the gun that killed Javid.