The crackle of gunfire shattered the humid Thursday night air on Passaic Street just before 9 p.m., leaving behind a scene now etched in yellow police tape and unanswered questions.
When Trenton officers arrived at the 100 block, they found four victims bleeding on the pavement—three adult men and a 16-year-old girl, all struck by bullets fired from a vehicle that pulled up, unleashed its violence, and vanished into the city’s shadows.
By the time emergency crews rushed them to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, 24-year-old Karan Hunter’s wounds proved fatal.
The other victims’ conditions remain undisclosed, their survival hanging in the balance as detectives scramble for leads.
Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey and Trenton Police Director Steven Wilson have deployed the county’s Homicide Task Force in a race against time, but the shooter’s car—and the motive behind this ambush—remain at large.
This is not just another headline in a city hardened by gun violence. Hunter had a name, a story, and a future stolen in an instant.
The teenage girl caught in the crossfire had homework due, plans for the weekend, a life that should never have intersected with a killer’s bullets.
Investigators are pleading for witnesses—someone who saw the car, heard the shots, or knows the whispers on the street—to break the silence.
Mercer County Prosecutor Janetta D. Marbrey and Trenton Police Director Steven Wilson
say that the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and the Trenton Police Department
are investigating.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Karl Johnston at (609) 989-6406 or Sgt. Roberto Reyes at (609) 256-0997, while tips to mchtftips@mercercounty.org can be sent anonymously,
Trenton has endured this before. The question is whether, this time, justice will prevail—or if another young life will be remembered only in vigil candles and cold case files.