05-04-2025
Man charged in wild downtown New London shootout
New London — Police have arrested one of the three suspects in a downtown shootout last summer.
Tremaine Dowdell, 31, a city man on supervised release from a federal New London-related firearms conviction, was apprehended Thursday by a team of local, state and federal law enforcement officials on Boswell Avenue in Norwich. He was arraigned in New London Superior Court on Thursday and remains held on a $250,000 bond.
Dowdell is charged in connection with a June 8, 2024 shootout between three men at the city's municipal parking lot off Golden Street, where onlookers ducked for cover or ran when as many as two dozen shots were fired from three different guns, reports show.
The incident occurred at 1:55 a.m. and police in the area responded to the parking lot to find the shooters had fled. Police found 29 shell casings, from 9mm and .22 caliber handguns, in the municipal parking lot, according to an arrest warrant application by Detective Justin Lawrie.
Video surveillance from the area of the shooting revealed Dowdell and two other men were hanging out among a crowd in the area of 12 Bank St. The three men later converged at the municipal parking lot, where Tremaine ducks for cover behind a Hyundai Sonata as one man fires shots from a handgun at him and another man nearby. Tremaine and another man return fire, police said.
'Several citizens in the parking lot in the crossfire began to run away and lay down behind cars,' the police report states.
Police said video shows Dowdell calmly walk away from the scene and toss what appears to be handgun on the ground.
Police later impounded a rented Hyundai Sonata, which was in the parking lot at the time of the shooting and peppered with bullet holes. Police spoke to the driver, 35-year-old Cabernet Queenan.
Queenan initially claimed to be an innocent bystander who was 'at the wrong place at the wrong time,' police reports show. Police said surveillance video, however, shows Queenan, while giving a statement to police, appears to sit directly on top of where one of the guns was tossed. Based on video footage, police said 'it appears that Queenan discreetly removed the suspected firearm from the crime scene.'
Queenan denied taking any firearms or helping the suspects get away but a search of her phone revealed Snapchat conversations between her and Dowdell, identified in Snapchat as Dowdell Mekhi, police said. The June 8, 2024 Snapchat conversation begins with Dowdell asking if she is alright. After Queenan tells Dowdell that the police are seizing her car, he responds 'they going to be on me now,' police said.
Queenan was arrested Feb. 26 and charged with tampering with evidence in connection with the case. Her case is pending.
Dowdell was charged with attempted first-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit. He is additionally charged with a violation of supervised release.
Dowdell is due to appear in New London Superior Court on April 28. If he posts bond, a judge has ordered he be monitored by GPS and remain in 24/7 lockdown. Dowdell's last known address is on Union Street.
Dowdell was arrested in 2019 in connection with a Sept. 14, 2019 shooting at the H&T Mart on Ocean Avenue. In 2021, he was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. Federal court records show Dowdell was released from federal prison on Dec. 18, 2023, but arrested again on May 25, 2024, by police in Providence, R.I., for possession of a ghost gun.
It is unclear if police have identified or charged the two other men in connection with the shootout. New London police did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
