Alleged Ax Murderer Attempted Suicide in Fairfield

The man who, according to the Connecticut Post, killed a homeless man with an ax and then ate part of the victim’s brains and eyeball, attempted to kill himself at on Black Rock Turnpike on Jan. 12, Fairfield police said, 12 days before the he was arrested in connection to the gruesome murder. Bridgeport police had found the body on Jan. 20, according to the Post.

Tyree L. Smith, 35, accused of murdering and cannibalizing Angel “Tun Tun” Gonzalez, according to the Post, had been discharged from St. Vincent’s Medical Center on Jan. 9, according to discharge papers Smith had on him at CVS on Jan. 12, department spokesperson Sgt. Sue Lussier said.

Smith had gone to CVS to fill several prescriptions he received when he was discharged, according to the report. He did not have a health insurance, a prescription card, or money, and pharmacists were unable to fill the prescriptions, according to the report. The staff offered to take Smith back to St. Vincent’s and help him fill them there, according to the report.

According to the police report, Smith sat in the pharmacy waiting area and rustled through his backpack to look for money and insurance card. When the pharmacists offered to take him back to St. Vincent’s, he sat there for 15 minutes, “eerily silent,” according to the report, and then disappeared.

Another CVS employee discovered Smith on the ground in Aisle 18, bleeding heavily from the wrists, Lussier said. His jacket and backpack were strewn on the floor next to him.

Smith was referred to Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health Center following the incident, Lussier said.

Police Chief Gary MacNamara said this shows you don’t always know what there is to know about a suspect. He said Fairfield Police will reach out to Bridgeport to let them know “we had contact with him.”

Smith is being held in lieu of a $1 million bond in Florida -- where he was arrested -- "pending extradition" to Connecticut, according to the Post.