Homicide Watch Trenton

Mycol Beckett (left) is accused of killing Eric Rue (right)

A city man with a history of being arrested for gun violence has been charged in connection with the murder of Eric Rue. Read more

Police investigate a murder on Morris Avenue Saturday morning. (Penny Ray - Trentonian)

A man enrolled in the military who has roots in the capital city died by gunfire in the East Ward Saturday morning, becoming the latest victim to be killed from ongoing gun violence this summer.

Police responded to Morris and Commonwealth avenues around 8 a.m. after someone reported an unresponsive male inside a vehicle near that intersection. Cops found the car’s door wide open with 34-year-old Eric Rue inside, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his body.

Emergency personnel rushed Rue to Saint Francis Medical Center, where he died a short time later, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Read more

A flurry of capital city gunplay left several victims wounded and one man dead on a festive weekend filled with back-to-school community events.

Jakim Allen

Shots were fired about 1 a.m. Saturday on the 200 block of Brunswick Avenue near Southard Street, fatally striking a 21-year-old city man multiple times in the chest. Police rushed Jakim Allen to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he died from his injuries later in the afternoon, authorities said.

The Mercer County Homicide Task Force is investigating the slaying and further details of the incident were not immediately released as of 6:10 p.m. Saturday. Read more

Trenton Police headquarters

The wife of a man who was shot and killed by an off-duty cop two years ago has filed a civil lawsuit against the city and the police department.

Kristi Williams, identified in court documents as the widow of Alfred Toe, filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that TPD Officer Sheehan Miles drank alcohol and “possibly” smoked marijuana prior to shooting Toe in the chest on August 27, 2016. Read more

Anthony Concepcion

State prisoner Anthony L. Concepcion remains in the custody of New Jersey Department of Corrections after his murder trial ended last week without resolution.

Concepcion, 26, of Trenton, is a self-confessed gunman serving a five-year prison sentence at South Woods State Prison while fighting Mercer County prosecutors in another case accusing him of shooting and killing 39-year-old Patrick Walker in 2014.

Concepcion had his day in court earlier this month, but his legal proceeding ended in a mistrial last Thursday due to a snafu involving the jury’s failure to follow instructions. Read more

An early morning shooting in Trenton’s West Ward killed one resident and left another man hospitalized in unknown condition.

Michael Monroe, 31, of Rutherford Avenue, was pronounced dead about 12:40 a.m. Saturday after suffering multiple gunshot wounds on the 100 block of Hoffman Avenue, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

The second victim, a 27-year-old city man, suffered a gunshot wound in the incident and was being treated Saturday at Capital Health Regional Medical Center, authorities said. Read more

Alberto “Choppy” Lopez has been found guilty on all counts in the murder of 17-year-old Shamere Melvin.

A jury on Thursday handed down the sweeping verdict, convicting Lopez of being the armed robber who shot and killed Melvin in the streets of Trenton nearly five years ago.

Lopez, 21, of Trenton, pointed a handgun at Melvin and fired a single shot into the victim’s forehead about 8:40 p.m. Dec. 18, 2013. The incident occurred on the 300 block of North Clinton Avenue near Trenton Police headquarters back when Lopez was 16. Cops arrested him the following day.

After years of being prosecuted as an adult, Lopez took his case to trial and lost. A jury of his peers convicted him of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder during the commission of a crime, first-degree armed robbery, second-degree possession of a firearm for unlawful purposes, and second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun. He faces 30 years to life in prison but will likely get sentenced to something on the lower end of the scale due to him committing the murder as a juvenile. Read more

Two eyewitnesses watched as Alberto “Choppy” Lopez murdered 17-year-old Shamere Melvin with a single gunshot to the head, the prosecution alleged Tuesday in closing arguments.

But Nicole Carlo, a defense attorney representing Lopez, said the eyewitnesses are “not credible,” suggesting the witnesses either had “distorted memories” or were intentionally lying under oath to avoid implicating themselves in the December 2013 robbery-turned-homicide.

With the defense and prosecution delivering closing arguments Tuesday, Lopez’s fate rests in the hands of a jury that will decide whether he is guilty or not guilty of murder, robbery and weapons offenses in the drug-related slaying that occurred in Trenton’s North Ward nearly five years ago.Read more

Kenneth McRae

A Burlington man was killed late Saturday night in a head-on crash on Route 29.

Kenneth McRae, 31, died after the crash, which sent three other people to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, including city resident Henry Arevalo-Martinez who has been charged with vehicular homicide.

“It hasn’t been determined yet, but somehow the suspect got on Route 29 going the wrong direction, which caused the head-on crash,” TPD Lt. Darren Zappley said. “Alcohol was probably a contributing factor.” Read more

Three murder trials are heating up in the Mercer County Criminal Courthouse.

Alberto Lopez, 21, of Trenton, is finally having his day in court after being arrested nearly five years ago and held on $750,000 cash bail on murder charges.

Lopez was 16 when he shot 17-year-old Shamere Melvin in the head during a botched robbery on the 300 block of North Clinton Avenue in Trenton’s North Ward Dec. 18, 2013, prosecutors said. The victim died from his injuries and police arrested Lopez the following day. Read more