Our card this week is Dashaun “Dae Dae” Lawson, the King of Hearts from Connecticut.Dashaun “Dae Dae” Lawson was 26-years-old when he was fatally shot outside his mother’s apartment in the Hockanum Park apartment complex in East Hartford, Connecticut. Dae Dae was killed just a few days before Christmas in 2017 and left behind three children, all under the age of five. His family and the detectives working his case are confident that someone in their neighborhood must have seen or heard something that could help investigators figure out who killed Dae Dae, they just need them to finally come forward. If you or anyone you know has information about Dashaun Lawon’s murder, please call Detective Paul Sulzicki directly at 860- 291-7544 or contact the East Hartford Police Department at 860-528-4401. View source material and photos for this episode at: thedeckpodcast.com/dashaun-dae-dae-lawson Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllcTo support Season of Justice and learn more, please visit seasonofjustice.org. The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AFText Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!
Chapter 1: What happened to Dashaun 'Dae Dae' Lawson in December 2017?
Our card this week is Deshawn Day-Day Lawson, the King of Hearts from Connecticut. Three days before Christmas in 2017, a group of kids piled off a school bus in East Hartford, Connecticut. But instead of happily rushing home to start their winter break, they stepped straight into a crime scene.
A single gunshot had echoed through the parking lot minutes before, and 26-year-old Deshaun Lawson lay bleeding to death on the cold asphalt. Two separate sightings of a metallic car could hold the key to who killed him, and police hope to track that car down with your help. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. Deshawn, also known as Day Day to his family, was close to his mom.
So close, in fact, that he stopped by her place in the Hockenham Park apartment complex almost every day for one reason or another. And on December 22nd, 2017, his reason was to pick her up so they could go shopping and get some last-minute Christmas gifts for his sister and his kids. But just as they were heading out the door, they got distracted by a particularly dramatic episode of Chicago Fire.
Day-Day was the first to tear himself away from the TV and went outside to wait for his mom by the blue Lexus that they shared as she finished getting ready. But his mom, who will call Cynthia to protect her privacy, got caught up in the show again. And she didn't have her hearing aids in, so if he called out to her or honked the horn, it didn't register.
The TV was all she could hear until there was a sudden knocking on her door. When she answered, Cynthia saw her neighbor, Josh, who calmly said something she almost couldn't make sense of. Someone shot Day Day.
That's when I opened the door and I just ran out. No nothing on my feet. I had socks because I like to be in the house with just socks on. And I just ran outside, no coat, no nothing. And Day Day was on the ground on his back.
That was Day Day's mom you just heard. Day Day was lying next to the car, a pool of blood spreading out beneath him as neighbors looked on in horror. Cynthia shouted to one of them to bring a towel to try and stop the bleeding. She could see her son's eyes moving, so she just kept talking to him, letting him know that he wasn't alone and that help was on the way.
Cynthia remained by Day Day's side till help got there, and she even stayed with him as he was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. About the same time, Detective Paul Sulzycki, who would become the lead investigator on the case, rushed to the scene with his partner after hearing a radio dispatch about the shooting.
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Chapter 2: Who witnessed the shooting of Dashaun 'Dae Dae' Lawson?
And as we were coming into town, it was broadcasted that a gold car was seen leaving the area. And a patrolman had stopped that gold car at a local gas station. So myself, Frank, my partner at the time, we go to that secondary scene, if you will. And a patrol was interviewing the driver of that gold car.
Detective Sulzycki said that he and his partner didn't personally stick around to talk to this guy because they had a crime scene to get to.
There was enough personnel there, so we decided let them handle that aspect. We can always go back to that if needed.
When they arrived at the scene of the shooting, there wasn't much in the way of physical evidence for them to work with. No shell casings or objects left behind by their killer. The only thing that stood out was a blood smear on the side of the car, but that later was determined to be Day-Day's. There were, however, plenty of potential witnesses.
Detective Slzycki had noted 25 to 30 people gathered just outside the crime scene perimeter when he first arrived. And the sight of that many people just standing around while a victim's blood was still soaking into the ground surprised him.
Usually we call it to a scene and there's no one there. The whole area was just full of people, either kids getting off their bus or parents waiting to get their kids off the bus. I just remember, you know, the housing project, the parking lot, and just people everywhere.
But every person they talked to said they didn't have anything to offer as far as eyewitness accounts. They didn't see the shooting happen or hear anything significant before or after. At the same time they were hitting brick wall after brick wall, Day-Day's family, his mom and his sister Keisha included, were anxiously waiting for news about his condition.
Here is Keisha and Cynthia recalling that.
We were just sitting there waiting, and then when the doctor came in, I think I was walking out, and when I turned around, my son punched a hole in the wall. And he just, like, dropped. And it was like... And I told him I wanted to see him. Took a while, but they had him in the room through a glass window, and they still had, like, the tube in his mouth.
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Chapter 3: What vehicles are linked to Dashaun 'Dae Dae' Lawson's case?
I just couldn't believe it. Like, somebody killed daddy. Somebody killed my... And I just kept saying it over and over. But I just, I couldn't believe it. Like, it was just unreal.
When Detective Sulzycki got the news of Day Day's death and went to the hospital, he found Day Day's family huddled in the hospital chapel, just desperate for answers. Cynthia didn't know who would have done this, but she demanded that investigators talk to Josh, the neighbor who had knocked on her door to deliver the devastating news. She wasn't buying that no one saw or heard anything.
She said that Josh in particular was always looking out his window and she was adamant that he must have heard or seen more than he was letting on. When investigators went back to speak with Josh, he told them that he was home with a friend when he heard what he thought was a tire popping. Now, he looked out his window and he saw Day Day on the ground next to the Lexus.
This apartment complex had multiple large parking lots with buildings wrapped around them, kind of in like a U-shape. And Josh's apartment was close to where Day Day lay, so he had a clear line of sight. Detective Sulzycki said that he also interviewed the friend that was with Josh, but as sure as Cynthia was that he had to have seen something, they were both equally adamant that they hadn't.
And they insisted that they had nothing to do with it either. And this was the general story from almost everyone, even the multiple people who called 911. They heard a loud pop and only after did they look out their windows to see Day Day hurt, either leaning up against the car or lying on the ground.
And most people claimed they didn't look out soon enough to see anyone else there or anyone fleeing the scene. That is, except for two separate women who might have actually seen more. The first woman was the one who alerted police to the gold car that had led to that traffic stop. She described it as a four-door sedan, but she wasn't able to tell police the make, model, or plate number.
When patrol officers were able to stop that gold car that they spotted driving away from the apartment complex, they learned that the driver lived in the apartments too, so it wasn't necessarily suspicious that he was driving out of that area.
I think there was an inkling at that scene with the gold car that he may have not been involved at that time because I believe there was an explanation given that he was on his way to work and his mannerisms didn't really add up to someone being involved in a shooting at that time.
Police were able to verify with one of this guy's coworkers that he was on his way to a shift at work. Detective Slzycki said that the driver had come from the same parking lot where Day Day had been shot, but it was possible that he'd driven out just before the shot rang out and didn't actually hear or see anything.
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Chapter 4: What rumors and evidence emerged after the shooting?
So most likely he was standing at his mom's car, his car, however you want to call it. And he probably saw it coming, so he went to turn. And as he turned, that's when the round was fired.
And that bullet struck his lower back. But because there was no shell casing found at the scene, investigators figured that the shooter either used a revolver, which doesn't eject shell casings, or fired from inside a vehicle, meaning that the casing would have been ejected into their car.
Now, they'd already searched that gold car and eliminated the driver as a suspect, and investigators were never able to pin down any other vehicle that was coming or going from the scene around that time, silver, gold, or otherwise. It's also not clear if the two women who called 911 actually saw different cars or if they saw the same car but just described different metallic colors.
And police don't even know if that gold car they stopped was a Buick. There's no record in the report of the vehicle's make. And Detective Slzycki just said that he remembers it being older and maybe on the bigger side for a sedan. Detectives really needed more information to try and track any potential suspects down. So they returned to the neighborhood.
You would think numerous people saw it happen because the amount of people that were outside. So a couple weeks later, we printed out flyers and we literally went door to door.
They did that multiple times, and detectives knew people in the Hockenham apartments had Day Day on their mind. Neighbors had even spray-painted his name on one of the buildings in his memory. But all investigators heard again and again was that no one had seen or heard anything that day. Or at least, that's what they were telling police.
But what they were telling each other was a different story. Because by this point, the rumor mill was churning.
It was just names after name after name. People started to come up with all these theories. So you get multiple names, multiple theories, and you just start, it's almost like you just start going in circles.
Detective Selzycki said one rumor was that some money had gone missing from Cynthia's workplace, and maybe Day Day's murder was connected to that somehow. Like maybe someone was angry about the missing cash and retaliated, or some sort of dispute had started. But that rumor got squashed almost immediately.
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Chapter 5: How did the investigation progress without surveillance footage?
One of the sad things is shortly thereafter, the town decided to put out cameras. So that place has cameras now, and the cameras are very good quality, but too little, too late.
Detectives also scoured the area, but all the cameras at fast food chains, gas stations, and private residences were either pointing in the wrong direction or weren't functioning at the time of the shooting. All police had to go off of was the bullet that entered Day Day's body. But they had nothing to compare that bullet to. And it was so damaged that they couldn't even determine its caliber.
At the same time, police were navigating a tricky relationship with Day Day's family.
And it took some time for them to admit that Day Day was dealing drugs. That came maybe six months to a year after the investigation, but we knew.
Then there was the Lexus, which had been towed from the scene. It belonged to Cynthia, and she initially wouldn't give police permission to search it. So cops ended up having to get a search warrant. Detective Sulzycki said he wondered if maybe there was something in the car that the family didn't want police to find. But Cynthia said that was never the case.
She said that another detective, who had apparently rubbed the family the wrong way by having a bit of an attitude, asked her to search the car while they were still at the hospital that day, like right after she got the news that Day Day had died.
And Cynthia said that she was just such a wreck that she wasn't really thinking clearly, so she deferred to Day Day's brother, Daryl, who at the time told her not to answer any questions. So she didn't consent to the search.
Now, police towed the car from the apartment, and when they did finally get a warrant and conducted the search, they only found run-of-the-mill stuff like candy, CDs, some coupons, and artwork Day Day's kids had made. They also found out that Day Day had a second phone that they didn't initially get their hands on. It took like a month or two after the shooting before they did.
But Cynthia said that she wasn't purposefully holding anything back. She knew Day Day had a second phone, but she just didn't know where it was until she moved his bed one day and the phone just fell to the ground. So she said that's when she turned it over to police. Again, she's not trying to hide anything or make the investigation more difficult. That's just how it played out.
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Chapter 6: What challenges did police face with Dashaun 'Dae Dae' Lawson's family?
Records show that the fight happened the morning of March 3rd, 2012, when Larry and Day Day encountered each other at a Subway sandwich shop. They'd apparently had some kind of previous beef over money, and on that day, things escalated. According to police records, Larry was the primary aggressor and ended up with a small cut on his wrist.
Police responded to the scene and the men were charged with criminal mischief and breach of peace, which are the charges from 2012 that I mentioned earlier. And this fight really didn't seem like anything major. Detective Slezicki called it just like a scuffle.
But the disagreement may have continued later that day when apparently shots rang out at the Hockenham apartments where Day Day and his mother were both living at the time. Day Day told officers that he had been walking between his mom's apartment and a friend's when he heard the shots.
And the investigators determined that the unidentified shooter seemed to have been aiming at the building that Day Day had been visiting earlier that day. Now, police never found the shooter back then, so who fired, who the target was, and what the motive was were all questions left unanswered.
Detective Slezicki said, it's hard to imagine that someone would hold a grudge for five years over a fight in a sandwich shop, but you never know. So while it's not much of a lead to chase down, it was really one of the only two that detectives ever had in this case.
And the thing that made it a little more interesting was the fact that police had actually gotten an anonymous tip that pointed to Larry too. The tipster said that Larry may have been the one to shoot Day-Day. Though, in all fairness, the tipster didn't say why. And it's possible it was just someone like Daryl who remembered that fight five years before.
There's no information about how Larry felt about that fight, whether he knew anything about Day Day's murder or what kind of car he was driving back in 2017. Because the thing is, police never talked to him as part of their investigation. A fight from five years back just didn't feel like enough of a lead for them to chase down.
Our reporters tried to reach Larry, but he didn't return our calls or our messages. About two months after Day Day's shooting, there was another tip that came in investigators did think was worth digging into. In February 2018, a guy in East Hartford who was arrested in a totally unrelated case tried to trade some information to cut a deal.
This guy, a confidential informant, tipped Detective Sulzycki off to a man who went by the street name Bleak. The informant said that he was with Bleak in a red BMW and saw a gun that Bleak was selling for $500. But when he tried to take a closer look at the gun, Bleak stopped him.
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