Homicide Watch Trenton

Police investigate a shooting in the area of Chambers Street and Walnut Avenue on Jan. 9, 2016. (Scott Ketterer- The Trentonian)

On New Year’s Eve, Shawntay Ross posted a meme on his Facebook page that said, “2016 will be a selfish year. My time will be invested on me. On improving myself. I want to become a better person physically and mentally.”

Nine days later, 39-year-old Ross was gunned down near the intersection of Walnut Avenue and Chambers Street. He died Sunday afternoon.

“There’s nothing negative anyone can say about him,” Marie “Murf” Antionette, who has known Ross since they were teenagers, said. “Coming from this environment in which we were all raised, yes, he was incarcerated for a short period of time. But he didn’t bother anyone…not a single soul. He opened the door for his elders, he wouldn’t curse around his elders, and he wouldn’t smoke around his elders. He was trying to instill respectability in our youth.”

Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity say Ross seemed to be nervous on Saturday afternoon. But no one knows whether he was actually worried about something, or if that’s just how things appeared.

Police sources say Ross was not a major player in the drug game, and that he was not on law enforcement’s radar of people to watch. Read more

Police investigate a shooting in the area of Chambers Street and Walnut Avenue. Jan. 9, 2016. (Scott Ketterer- The Trentonian)

A man who was shot Saturday night later died in the hospital, becoming the city’s second homicide victim this year.

Shawntay Ross, 39, was shot in the area of Walnut Avenue and Chambers Street around 6 p.m. Saturday. He died Sunday afternoon, according to a spokesperson with the county prosecutor’s office.

Sources suggested another victim may have been wounded in the shooting Saturday night, but that information has not been officially confirmed by police.

On Saturday afternoon, 24-year-old Jovan Marino died from injuries suffered during a shooting that happened Friday night.

Anyone with information about either of the murders is asked to call the Mercer County Homicide Task Force at (609) 989-6406 or contact the Trenton Police confidential tip line at (609) 989-3663. Individuals may also call the Trenton Crime Stoppers tip line at (609) 278-8477. Those wishing to text a tip can send a message labeledTCSTIPS to Trenton Crime Stoppers at 274637.

Police investigate a shooting in the area of Chambers Street and Walnut Avenue after a shooting on Saturday evening just after 6 p.m. on Jan. 9, 2016. (Scott Ketterer- The Trentonian)

A 24-year-old man who was shot on Friday night has died, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

Late Saturday night Prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio said that the 24-year-old victim succumbed to his injuries at the hospital on Saturday afternoon. The man was shot around 11:15 p.m. on Friday in the 100 block of Rosemont Avenue.

The victim has been identified as Jovan Marino.

The man becomes the first homicide victim this year, and the case remains under investigation by the Mercer County Homicide Task Force.

His death comes among a spate of shootings that left at least four other men injured in less than 24 hours. A man who was shot on Saturday evening in the area of Walnut Avenue and Chambers Street remains in extremely critical condition after being shot around 6 p.m., according to police.

Earlie Harrell, a high-ranking member of the Sex, Money, Murder set of the Bloods street gang, who is also known as Messiah. (Contributed photo)

Earlie Harrell, a high-ranking member of the Sex, Money, Murder set of the Bloods street gang, knew several murder victims who died in 2015. In fact, he’s known many of the victims killed in Trenton over the past 15 years.

Harrell, who’s also known as Messiah, doesn’t keep a tally of the people he’s known who are now dead, nor does he like to talk about the lives lost. But as media and community leaders analyze the capital city’s murder rate at the end of each year, Harrell can’t help but wonder if he’s been correct all along.

“I think about it all the time, and the way I see it, the politicians and city leaders are at fault for all these deaths,” Harrell said. “The people in leadership positions who have the resources to change things are at fault.”

Violent crime in the capital city has significantly declined since 2013, the deadliest year in Trenton’s history. Law enforcement officials attribute the decline to a multi-faceted crime fighting strategy that includes collaborative efforts from local, state and federal agencies. The newly reformed Mercer County Shooting Response Team and the Attorney General’s Targeted Anti-Gun (TAG) initiative are just two strategies officials say help significantly improve their ability to keep the city’s most violent criminals off of the streets.

Much of the city’s gun violence is related to drug trade, police say, and often times retaliatory in nature. So, while everyone analyzes initiatives that help solve and prevent crime, Harrell wonders why no one is questioning what caused violence to spike in the first place.

“They have to give street hustlers the tools to change,” 40-year-old Harrell said. “We need to train people to work in today’s job market.” Read more

Mercer County had two hung juries in back-to-back murder trials in two weeks, a vexing problem for prosecutors that legal experts said could point to flaws in the cases, flaws in the way their cases were presented or flaws in jurors.

Legal experts wrangled over an alphabet soup of possibilities when they were contacted by The Trentonian, which focused on the hung juries as part for its end-of-the-year story detailing the county’s most riveting criminal cases. Read more

The numbers in this report are pulled from Homicide Watch Trenton’s database, unless otherwise noted. For more information, use the sorting features of the victims and suspects databases, or explore the map.

In 2015, the city experienced 19 homicides, which includes the deaths of John Covington and Tina Anderson, whom both were killed via automobile accidents that were later determined to be vehicular homicides.

According to the New Jersey State Police Uniform Crime Reporting Unit, vehicular homicides are considered manslaughter and are not reported as a homicide statistic. Therefore, New Jersey State Police will report Trenton’s official homicide number as 17. The Trentonian, however, includes vehicular homicides in its yearly homicide count. Read more

This mural in memory of Unkle Lord, aka Davae Dickson, was painted by Will Kasso of S.A.G.E. Coalition at the corner of Chambers and Locust streets. (contributed photo)

The number of people murdered in the capital city declined for a second year in a row, but the killing of any single person is a loss of one life too many.

No single person’s death is more important than another’s, as each murder brings heartbreak and suffering to people still living. Several murders captured the city’s hearts and minds this year, for a variety of reasons. This is a short list of those that were most captivating. Read more

Ernier Pacheco

A city man who was indicted earlier this year in connection with the 2014 stabbing death of Alberto Saquic, now faces aggravated assault charges stemming from an incident that happened three months before Saquic’s murder.

Ernier Pacheco, 19, is currently in jail awaiting trial for the murder of 21-year-old Saquic, which Pacheco claims was self-defense. But over the past 16 months, police developed enough probable cause to charge Pacheco in connection with an assault that sent one man to the hospital with a head injury caused by a baseball bat.

Around 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2014, four people were walking in the 200 block of Cummings Avenue when two suspects approached them from behind. Police say two of the four people in the initial group were slightly ahead of the others, when the two in the rear were assaulted.

Police say one victim was hit in the head with a baseball bat, and the other victim was punched in the head with a closed fist. The two people walking ahead of the others then turned to help the victims, police say, and the suspects fled. But while the suspects were running, one of the victims managed to grab a suspect’s jacket. Read more

Randy Kareem Washington

A man accused of killing two people last year has been indicted in connection with the death of 43-year-old George Jamison.

Randy Washington, 34, was indicted last week on charges of first-degree murder, felony murder, robbery and related weapons offenses in connection with Jamison’s death.

Jamison, of Pennington, was shot once in the back while sitting on a bus stop bench in front of 18 North Broad Street in July last year; he later died at the hospital. Prosecutors say Washington robbed Jamison at gunpoint before he shot him, and then fled from the scene on a bicycle.

Washington has also been indicted in connection with the shooting death of 64-year-old Silas Johnson, who was gunned down in October last year.

An attorney for Mikal Bush, who is free on $600,000 bail and set to go on trial for murder next year, says his client had nothing to do with the death of a key witness in his case.

Breion Greenfield (contributed photo)

The witness is Breion Greenfield, who was gunned down last week in Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Trenton.

Police have not named any suspects in the slaying, nor have they identified any persons of interest.

Bush and Greenfield allegedly had bad blood in the past, and Bush is believed to have targeted Greenfield during a drive-by shooting Oct. 8, 2008.

Prosecutors have said the attempted hit ended in the death of Hassan Peters, an innocent bystander who was playing cards at a residence on the first block of Bellevue Avenue when he was stuck in a hail of bullets.Read more