New London - Police are focusing on four to six suspects in the Oct. 29 stabbing death of Matthew Chew, and it appears the murder may have been random, according to four separate sources with some knowledge of the investigation.

Police initially characterized the killing on Huntington Street as "drug-related" and not a threat to the public.

But police are now not sure whether Chew knew his assailants, one of whom may be a minor, according to the sources. No arrests have been made.

Deputy Police Chief Marshall Segar said in an e-mail to The Day on Thursday, "No information will be released at this time as the investigation is ongoing.''

Chew, a 25-year-old pizza maker, had left his job at 2Wives Brick Oven Pizza on Huntington Street after 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, and was walking to his apartment a block away when he was attacked.

He was stabbed six times, according to sources, and fell to the ground near the pizza restaurant. Police said the initial report that came in about 11:30 p.m. was that a man had been hit by a car.

Chew, a musician and artist who lived on Huntington Street, was taken to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and then flown by Life Star helicopter to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he died.

Police executed many search-and-seizure warrants Tuesday night in connection with the murder.

Chew was a 2003 graduate of Ledyard High School, and according to his friends and family, was living his dream. He worked at 2Wives, where he invented a pear and Gorgonzola pizza, and lived downtown with his girlfriend and his dog. He also was a disc jockey at several local establishments.

They described him as a young man "who wanted to make the world better."

"There's no way he should have gone the way he did," a former roommate, Ryan Grant, said during a vigil in Chew's memory the night after his death. "I think about his last moments, and I think about every terrible thing that happened, and it's (expletive) awful."

Chew's friends said they found it hard to believe he died in a drug-related incident. He was a practicing Buddhist and would not have put up a fight if he was being robbed, they said.