violent holiday weekend in Newark, where authorities said one person was killed and four wounded in four shootings today, after three people were shot dead and four others wounded on Saturday.
City streets were crisscrossed by yellow and black police tape as detectives and police officers investigated the shootings while mourning the death of a fellow officer. William Johnson was killed Thursday night in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting as he waited — off duty and unarmed— for a slice of pizza.
A Newark teenager was arrested in Johnson’s shooting, but no arrests have been made in any of the weekend incidents.
With temperatures expected to reach into the 90s Monday, this Memorial Day weekend seemed to usher in not only the beginning of the summer holiday season, but also the annual spike in violence that accompanies warm weather in the city.
The most recent death occurred at around 4 p.m. today, when police said a man was shot and killed on Norfolk Street in Newark’s North Ward. Officers responded to a report of shots fired, and found the victim with several gunshot wounds. The unidentified victim was taken to University Hospital in the city, but died soon after arriving. Police said they do not have a suspect or motive.
Earlier in the day, two men were wounded in a noon shooting near a Quick Pick Food Mart at 7th Avenue and Broadway, said Detective Josephine Santaniello, a Newark police spokeswoman. A white sedan parked there had two shattered windows and was pockmarked with bullet holes. A small splatter of blood stained the pavement outside the car.
"It sounded like firecrackers," said a 35-year-old Newark man who declined to give his name for fear of retribution. He said he heard the gunshots while working at a nearby auto shop.
And at 2:40 p.m., Santaniello said, a man was shot several times outside an Avon Street apartment complex. Witnesses said the unidentified man was struck in the arm, chest and mouth after a group of young men opened fire with an automatic weapon, also frightening several children who were playing nearby.
"The rounds just kept going. A mini-machine gun, that’s what it sounded like," said Patricia Casper, 49, who lives at the Pilgrim Baptist Village complex, where she said there was another shooting last year. "I’ve got five grand kids, and I can’t keep going through this."
Casper was one of few witnesses willing to be quoted by name. Several residents at her complex and at other shootings said they feared retaliation if they were seen talking to a reporter.
About 10 p.m. tonight, a man was shot in the leg on Walnut Street in the city’s Ironbound section, police said. He was taken to University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Newark’s siege of violence over the past four days comes during a year that has seen a dramatic increase in crime following the layoff of more than 160 police officers. This year, violent crime — including homicides, shootings and assaults — was 21 percent higher during the first quarter than during the same period last year, and the murder rate was 71 percent higher, according to Newark Police figures.
The recent slayings make for a total of at least 35 homicides in Newark in 2011, according to the police and figures compiled by The Star-Ledger. Last summer — the city’s most violent since 1990 — there were 35 slayings. In 2010, a total of 85 people were killed in the city.
This year’s increase in violence follows the November layoff of more than 160 police officers. Arrests have also fallen steeply since the layoffs occurred.
The police, too, have been victims of the violence.
On Thursday, Johnson was killed by an errant bullet in a drive-by shooting at a fried chicken and pizza eatery on Lyons Avenue. Rasul McNeill-Thomas, 19, was charged with Johnson’s slaying Saturday, after authorities said he was targeting a woman who had punched his mother during her bridal shower Thursday.
Saturday was a particularly bloody day in the city, where three people were killed in three shootings in the North, Central and South wards, which also wounded three people.
Those shootings began at around 2 a.m., when a 24-year-old man was found with a gunshot wound to his chest on Highland Avenue. He was taken to Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, but pronounced dead shortly afterward, Santaniello said.
Just after 7 p.m., police responded to a report of shots fired on Irvine Turner Boulevard, where they found three men and a woman wounded. One of the men bled to death after being hit in the femur, according to Santaniello.
Saturday’s final fatality occurred at 11 p.m., when a man died after authorities said he was shot several times in the head and body along 14th Avenue.
Another man was also shot, though his wound was not life threatening, Santaniello said.
