Two women. Two men. Two different homes. Two different areas of Stratford: Paradise Green and the South End. And two different responses from the Stratford Police Department.
On March 28th, Terrence Cramer, 41, was murdered in his girlfriend’s home on Feeley Avenue in the South End neighborhood of Stratford. The suspect police now have in custody, Jabari Bush, is accused of shooting Terrence and fleeing the scene. In a press release issued by the Stratford Police Department on March 28th, the day of Jabari’s arrest, the release said, “after a brief motor vehicle pursuit” Jabari was arrested in Derby, CT.
On April 4th, Paul Balzarano, 43, was murdered in the home that he shared with his partner on Woodstock Avenue in the Paradise Green neighborhood of Stratford. One day after his murder, police released a video of a suspect. A Be On the Look Out (BOLO) was initially placed right after the shooting for the alleged suspect in the video.
In the Crier’s interviews with Mayor Chess and Captain Pinto, both homicides were called “domestic incidents” or “isolated incidents” with no threat to the public.
The facts: two men lost their lives to gun violence. Two men who had families, children, and lives which were cut short. There were press releases and television coverage of both murders. There have been updates and excessive details released about the circumstances surrounding Cramer’s murder. There have been no detailed or clear communications from the Stratford Police Department after the first 48 hours regarding the arrest of the alleged suspect (referenced in the BOLO) in the murder of Balzarano.
The Crier spoke about the incident with residents in the neighborhood where Paul was murdered. Katie, 38, a mom and Stratford resident for over 10 years, told the Crier, “There have been statements released indicating that the public is safe and to not be alarmed, but no information has been released surrounding the circumstances of the murder or whether or not a suspect is in custody- all of which are critical to putting our minds at ease.”
Why the silence from the SPD? I certainly watch enough crime shows to know that there is a kind of integrity which needs to be kept in all investigations, and especially in murders. And then there is the mission of the Stratford Police Department , which is written in full on their website, but in part states, “To achieve this goal, the department strives to gain and retain the confidence and respect of the public in such a way as to insure the welfare and betterment of the citizens of Stratford.”
With a population of over 52,000 people, Stratford is considered a town, and not a city. So many of our lives as neighbors and citizens are woven together by committees we serve on, volunteer opportunities we engage in, sidelines we cheer our kids on from, teacher conferences we attend, and concerts on the Green we enjoy together. Our lives are connected, and with these two recent murders in town, residents are on edge.
In a nationwide study published in January of 2026, researchers from the University of California Davis, Northwestern University, and the University of Washington, examined the relationship between news coverage, gun violence, and race. The study, which I encourage you to read, delves into the language used in news coverage (including press releases) in relation to gun violence, in which the suspect was white and/or a person of color, and/or the victim was white and/or a person of color.
In a three year span, between 2022-2025, 0 murders due to gun-violence were reported in the Town of Stratford. Within weeks in 2026, we lost two people by those means, under different circumstances, on opposite sides of town.
We live in a small town with big-city problems, and side by side with human beings who are impacted by what happens in Stratford as a whole, no matter if your home is in the South End, Paradise Green, or the North End. We are all neighbors protected well by the Stratford Police Department.
I am the mother of children who are in the late Terrence Cramer’s son’s class. My home, where I live with these same children, is one block away from Paul Balzarano’s home, and through our fence, we can see the house he was murdered in.
We are all neighbors who love our community, and when “incidents” like these happen (which in Stratford is a rarity), equal coverage, details, and information need to be provided, no matter where the incident happened or who the victim(s) or suspect(s) are.
They are people who lived in our community with ties to our community, and who are no longer here. And both incidents deserve the same level of transparency, respect, and care when communicating details to the public, for the integrity of the ongoing investigation(s) and for the respect of their families who grieve their loss and want to honor the memory of their loved one, gone too soon.
