3 Dead in Execution-Style Killings in Newark (NJ)

1010wins ^ | Monday, 06 August 2007

[Calpernia]

NEWARK, N.J. -- Three of the young people had been ordered to line up against a wall on the weedy steps behind an elementary school and were shot to death from close range. A fourth was found alive by police slumped near a set of bleachers about 30 feet away, with gunshot and knife wounds to her head.

All were from Newark; and all would soon either start or resume their lives away from the violent city, at a college hundreds of miles away.

Ofemi Hightower been accepted Thursday to Delaware State University after two years of rejection letters. Terrance Aerial was a business major there and an ordained minister, while his sister Natasha was to depart for Dover after the weekend to return to summer classes and a job at a Subway sandwich shop.

Deshawn Harvey was also due back at the university this week for his job in the school's administration building.

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said authorities don't have any suspects nor a motive in the murders of Hightower, Harvey and Terrance Aerial. Natasha Aerial is listed in fair condition at Newark's University Hospital.

"They were good kids,'' Dow said, adding that none had criminal records and went to the lot behind Mount Vernon School Saturday night to hang out and listen to music.

The Aerials' mother, Renee Tucker, said the last time she saw her children was around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, when they told her they were going around the corner to get something to eat.

"They said they were going to come right back to the house,'' Tucker said.

Instead, sirens raced through her Vailsburg neighborhood just before midnight, because someone heard gunshots and screams behind the school and called police.

Carlos Holmes, a spokesman for the university, said Natasha Aerial and Harvey were to be juniors this year. He had little or no information on the other two, other than someone with a name spelled similarly to Hightower's had been rejected by the school several times in the last few years.

Prosecutor Dow also reported a fourth homicide in the city Sunday morning, also in the Vailsburg section. Detectives believe the shooting death of Quintez Waller on Smith Street was in retaliation for a shooting hours earlier up the block.

[johnny7]

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said authorities don't have any suspects nor a motive in the murders

Gee... what a surprise.

[Dick Vomer]

7th day Adventist Christian youth groups at it again....

[NCC-1701]

The Sopranos at it again?

[nw_arizona_granny]

Bump.

Gangs?

[Calpernia]

The bloods are known for execution style killing. The ‘Bloodz Rule’ the Newark streets. So I wouldn’t be surprised.

[nw_arizona_granny]

A month or so ago, I did a bunch of googles on muslim gangs in the U.S., and found a bunch of them, several towns.

[Calpernia]

Update:

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/764956.php?contentType=4&contentId=759445
Father and grandmother of Deshawn Harvey attend news conference with Mayor Cory Booker

Three friends were forced to kneel against a wall behind an elementary school and were shot to death at close range, and a fourth was found about 30 feet away with gunshot and knife wounds to her head, police said.

All were from Newark and planned to attend Delaware State University this fall. Several Newark residents are calling for Mayor Cory Booker to step down a day after three friends were shot to death execution-style behind an elementary school, and a fourth was found about 30 feet away with gunshot and knife wounds to her head.

(snip)

In the wake of the killings, Mayor Cory A. Booker again found himself defending his administration's inability to make a dent in the city's alarming murder rate.

"This is just not acceptable. This breaks the heart of our city,'' he said at news conference Saturday. A spokeswoman for Booker didn't immediately return a call for comment on Monday.

A month ago, Booker and Police Director Garry McCarthy announced that crime in the city had fallen by 20 percent in the first six months of 2007 compared to a year ago. Yet despite decreases in the number of rapes, aggravated assaults and robberies, the murders have continued at an alarming rate.

Saturday night's killings, along with an unrelated shooting over the weekend that killed a Montclair man, brought Newark's murder total to 60 in 2007.

That is three fewer than in the same period in 2006. But that statistic obscures a more disturbing one: 17 people have been killed in the city in the eight weeks since June 12, a rate that would surpass 2006's total of 106 murders for the calendar year.

(snip)

[oldvike]

Evil bastards. The cruelty in this world never ceases to amaze me.

[oldvike]

Evil bastards. The cruelty in this world never ceases to amaze me.

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1877354/posts
Four College Friends Shot in New Jersey-(executed)

[ladyjane]

So they blame the mayor?

[Calpernia]

Well, why wasn’t he following the kids around with a shield?

/wiza gurl

[Calpernia]

'The City is in Panic Mode'
In Newark, N.J., gun violence has become an all too common part of daily life, but these shootings were enough to chill even the most hardened residents: Four young friends shot execution-style in a schoolyard just days before they were tohead to college, three were killed.

[Think free or die]

So sad. These kids sound like they were on a good path with their lives. My heart goes out to the surviving girl and to their families.

[newbeenew]

horrible. just horrible. the good die young, again.

how very very sad.

thoughts are with their families, who obviously did everything right to raise such stellar souls in such unforgiving surroundings. and with that surviving child, who will have to be so very brave ... now...and forever.

[Travis McGee]

This must be a mistake. NJ has very strict gun control laws. It couldn’t have happened there.

[Calpernia]

>>>The bloods are known for execution style killing. The ‘Bloodz Rule’ the Newark streets.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_219120409.html
Newark Executions: Bloods Gang Symbol Discovered
Sources Tell CBS 2 Gang Insignia Spray Painted Near Scene

Excerpt:

As police continue to search for suspects in the murder that they initially labeled as random, sources tell CBS 2 HD that a gang tag with the word “PIRU” was found spray painted at the crime scene. PIRU is believed to be a sect of the notorious Bloods gang.

[Calpernia]

Not from the scene in Newarks; but this is the insignia:

[Calpernia]

Looks like it was the Bloodz.