Trenton police probe weekend homicide

A convicted killer has been identified as the victim of a fatal ambush in which he was shot multiple times outside the Roger Garden Apartments late Saturday night, police said Monday.

The victim was identified as 32-year-old Wilfredo Rivera, who served from 1999 to 2010 for an aggravated manslaughter committed in March 1998.

A police spokesman said the shots rang out Saturday outside the housing complex along Hoffman Avenue in the West Ward.

Officers arrived to find the victim just inside a hallway at the apartment building. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton.

The fatality was just one of several violent crimes that kept city officers busy Saturday evening.

Cory Persons, 35, was spotted by officers allegedly waving and firing a revolver on Walnut Street. As police approached to arrest Persons, he ran off and entered an abandoned building at 267 Walnut St. In an attempt to elude officers, Persons climbed onto the roof of the vacant property and jumped onto the roof of the neighboring building and then jumped into a third floor room through a window.

Several attempts to get the suspect to surrender failed until an officer arrived with his canine partner. The dog was able to pull Persons out of hiding and into the hands of arresting officers. In addition to the firearm in Persons’ possession, two additional weapons were recovered at his residence.

The suspect is also a person of interest in a shooting that occurred earlier that evening in the same vicinity, police said. In that case, a man was shot in the upper part of both thighs.

Police were called to 408 N. Clinton Ave. Saturday evening when, according to Trenton police spokesman Peter Szpakowski, “an ex-girlfriend got very jealous at her ex-boyfriend, and stabbed him in the chest.” Police said the victim did not want to identify or press charges against the female suspect.

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