Tyrese Blue

Tyrese Alexander Blue Jr., a New Haven father and Amazon courier, was shot and killed on Saturday, 14 October 2023, during an illegal firearm sale near Cedar and Cassius streets. He was 26. His funeral home obituary and later state prosecutions preserved a fuller picture than crime blotters alone: a Yale New Haven Hospital birth on 16 August 1997 to Sharon Baines-Blue and Tyrese Blue Sr., a 2017 high-school graduate, an active Falcons football teammate, and the father of newborn daughter Rylee Blue, then only about two weeks old, with fiancee Richlyn Mack.

Blue held various jobs and most recently worked as an Amazon courier. In free time he stayed close to nieces, nephews, and godchildren. He was brother to Jasmine Baines-Lowery, Tyren Blue, Alyra Blue, Reshawn Blue, Shaquille Jones, Mone Blue, and DaRese Blue, and was survived by grandparents Janice Blue, Alexander Langley, and Barbara Baines. A celebration of life was held on 23 October 2023 at Faith Baptist Church in West Haven.

The criminal case that returned Blue's name to 2026 headlines concerned Lewis Santiago of New Haven. On 20 July 2026 Santiago pleaded guilty to felony murder and criminal possession of a firearm on what would have been the first day of jury selection. On 16 September 2026 Judge Tracy Lee Dayton sentenced him to 35 years in prison plus 10 years of special parole. State's Attorney John P. Doyle Jr. extended condolences to Blue's friends and family, many of whom attended sentencing and delivered victim-impact statements.

People Forever's pending stub listed diedOn as 18 September 2026 because local news that day covered the sentencing announcement; the correct date of death is 14 October 2023. Remembering Blue means holding both the family record of a young father and the public record of the prosecution that followed, without reducing his life to the crime that ended it.

Local coverage after the sentencing again named Blue as the victim whose family filled the courtroom with impact statements, a reminder that homicide cases continue to shape households long after the crime-scene tape comes down. Prosecutors thanked Detective Dash and fellow officers for the investigation that made the plea and sentence possible. For People Forever readers encountering Blue because of 2026 headlines, the corrected dates matter: he was born in 1997, killed in 2023, and only newly visible again when the justice system closed a chapter his relatives had already been living for years.