A teenage girl who was killed by gunfire Saturday, when two other people were shot and injured while a fourth victim was hurt from “broken glass and bullet fragments” during the triple-shooting incident.
Shemiah Davis, 15, was killed according to Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri.
The shooting happened around 6:45 p.m. on the 100 block of Bellevue Avenue, near North 25 Housing, in Trenton.
Onofri said a 19-year-old woman who also got shot multiple times was hospitalized in critical condition and a third victim, a 17-year-old male, was shot in the leg.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s office said a fourth person was injured in the incident from “broken glass and bullet fragments” but was not listed as a shooting victim.
“The scourge of gun violence in cities across America is profoundly impacting our communities,” said Mayor W. Reed Gusciora. “It is terrifying and unsettling to feel the weight of this issue so close to our home and our hearts. Since January 2021, Trenton PD has taken more than 150 guns off our streets, and a new task force established by Acting Director Steve Wilson is poised to do more.”
Gusciora sought to paint a rosy picture by claiming, “We have reduced gun violence in our city by 20% compared to the same period last year.”
Wilson called the shooting “senseless.”
Anyone with any information that might help authorities identify the shooters can provide information in confidence to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force at (609) 989-6406. Information can also be emailed to mchtftips@mercercounty.org.
Trenton Councilwoman Robin M. Vaughn—who cited State Police gun crime statistics to back up her claim that shootings in the city were up 110 percent in June and 83 percent in July compared to the previous period—says Gusciora, Wilson and police brass earning more than $200,000 yearly need to be held accountable.
“Police Director Wilson has more shootings on his watch—for the mere 10-week-period he has been on the job—than (former Police Director Sheilah) Coley did for the same duration,” said Vaughn in late August. “And at an outrageous rate of one murder per week. All who called for the first Black woman police director’s head are dead silent.”
Although former GOP Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli criticized Democratic Governor Phil Murphy for his handing of the pandemic, the Republican challenger did specifically mention that the incumbent created a legion of killers reminiscent of Willie Horton, the Massachusetts murderer who probably cost Michael Dukakis the 1988 presidential election.
Murphy’s policy intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 among inmates led to the early release of three convicts—27-year-old Ronny Paden Jr. of Delran, 42-year-old sex offender Theodore Luckey of Asbury Park, and Jerry D. Crawford, 25, of Atlantic City,—who allegedly killed a total of five victims shortly after they were let out of New Jersey prisons.
The killing spree in New Jersey’s Capital City seems to be a losing battle for authorities, where about 70 percent of the homicides have gone unsolved in recent years. While multiple murders have been reported, only a few arrests have been made in connection with those killings.
Shamiem Young, 26, was killed on Faircrest Avenue just before midnight on Monday, September 6. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Fred Davis, 43, was shot dead the 400 block of West Hanover Street just before 9 p.m. on Monday, August 30, in what police believe was a botched robbery attempt. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Herberth Ramirez Pimentel, 37, was pronounced dead at Ditmar Alley just after 4 a.m.on Thursday, August 19, 2021, after officers located him with a gunshot wound. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Three days after the August 1 fatal shooting of 30-year-old Daquan Basnight, Matthew Tanner, 36, was arrested for that crime, which happened on the 800 block of Stuyvesant Avenue in Trenton.
Blake Pittman, 29, was arrested without incident on July 29, 2021, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, for the July 14, 2021, shooting death of 53-year-old Pablo Herrera Chun, who was killed in the area of 43 N. Stockton Street in Trenton.
Trenton police responded to the area of 14 Breunig Avenue at approximately 1:45 p.m. on July 19, 2021. Officers located William Mitchell, 33, of Trenton, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at the Breunig Avenue Park. He was transported to Capital Health Regional Medical Center and pronounced dead a short time later. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
A few hours later, just after 8 p.m., Trenton police found Jermel Carter, 38, of Trenton, on the side of 57 Ellsworth Avenue unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
Keith N. Jordan, 30, was taken into custody in Trenton five days after the July 5, 2021 shooting death of 16-year-old Dion Ellis, who was found shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, while a second 16-year-old male shooting victim was transported to the hospital and treated for a gunshot wound to the leg.
No arrests have been made and investigations are ongoing in most of the other slayings that have plagued the city but no real explanation has come from the Governor, who blamed rising crime on the summer heat wave.