A 16-year-old boy who was shot in the face at around 9 p.m. on Thursday night inside a residence on the 100 block of Liberty Street in Trenton, New Jersey, is the sixth murder victim in the Capital City.
Authorities said there were other teenagers present in the house and a gun was found at the scene, but few other details were released so far.
“More horrible news out of Trenton,” said Isaac Avilucea, the star reported for The Trentonian. “Another young person has been shot and killed, in what appears to be a deadly feud among youngsters, per police sources.”
The shooting of the teenage boy came only a day after Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora and Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri (pictured above) announced the arrest of a man charged in the shooting death of a 9-year-old girl in Trenton, Isiah Roberts, 19, who is charged with slaying Sequoya Bacon-Jones.
The child was shot Friday night in Kingsbury Square when a fight between two women over Facebook posts turned deadly.
Trenton ended 2021 with 40 murders, recording a tie of the all-time high set in 2020 and a source close to the mayor expressed concern that the surge in violence could hinder his chances of winning re-election.
Medics transported Bacon-Jones to Capital Health Regional Medical Center where she was stabilized in surgery. She was then transported to the Robert Wood Johnson New Brunswick Hospital, where she was pronounced dead around midnight, officials say.
Officials say the incident stemmed from a social media dispute.
Roberts, 19, is charged with murder, aggravated assault and gun violations in the killing of the 9-year-old girl, who was playing in a courtyard with her brother and other children when gunfire rang out and a stray bullet hit her
“If this isn’t a call, and if this isn’t the rallying point for this idiotic and senseless violence to stop, I don’t know what is,” said Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri, who at times seemed to choke back tears during a press conference.
The women had gone to the courtyard to fight and at some point, the shooter Roberts, who is the brother of one of the women, got into an altercation with another man, Onofri said.
That’s when Roberts opened fire, with at least one bullet striking Sequoya in the upper body, according to the prosecutor.
Other children could have been struck too, were it not for a “hero” resident of the surrounding apartments who ushered the kids into her home and out of the line of fire, the prosecutor noted.
Mercer County authorities said Trenton police were called at about 7:30 p.m. Friday to a reported fistfight in a large crowd in the Kingsbury Square courtyard.
Moments later an alert was also received from ShotSpotter, the city’s gunshot detection system that pinpoints the location of gunfire.
The girl was found with a single gunshot wound and rushed to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, then to Robert Wood Johnson New Brunswick Hospital.
She was pronounced dead shortly before midnight, authorities said.
Trenton Police Director Steve Wilson expressed anger and frustration over social media bullying that can lead to in-person violence.
“I am pleading with the citizens in Trenton to get involved and dial 911 before these things happen,” said Wilson. “While the phones are out, they’re not calling 911. They’re recording because it’s fun. They want to be on Worldstar and YouTube.”
“She was a bright 9-year-old little girl,” said Sacha Bacon-Jones, remembering her daughter. “She came into this world fighting. She left this world fighting.”
“It was determined that two females were in a dispute over Facebook posts and they went to the courtyard to fight,” said Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onifri. “As the fight was taking place, an altercation ensued between Isiah Roberts and another male in the immediate area of the fight.”
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has asked to keep Roberts in jail until trial.
Noting that a New Year’s Eve gathering shooting near Temple University in Philadelphia claimed the life of 16-year-old Trenton resident Byron Thompson, the mayor’s aide said teenagers do not have to be in the city to end up dead.
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