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.
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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.
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Major Developments in Newark SlayingsThursday, August 09, 2007
Another development in the execution-style slayings of three friends in Newark.
A prosecutor's spokesman says the man wanted in the slayings is arranging to surrender.
The word comes minutes after Mayor Cory Booker announced a warrant for Jose Carranza's arrest. The 31-year-old is accused of three counts or murder, four counts of robbery and one count of attempted murder.
Authorities say fingerprint and ballistics evidence led them to Carranza.
Police arrested a 15-year-old boy late last night. His name has not been released because of his age.
Authorities have said robbery appeared to be the motive for the killings. Booker says the crime was not racially motivated. Carranza is Latino and the victims are black.
Three of the victims were forced to kneel against a wall and were shot at close range. A fourth survived.
Fourth Suspect Identified in Newark Killings
Authorities in Newark have issued an arrest warrant for 24-year old Rodolfo Godinez described as "a principal player'' in the murders of three college students. Tears, anger and a resolve to end the deadly violence that has scarred the city marked yesterday's funeral services.
NEWARK, NJ (1010 WINS) -- Tears, anger and a resolve to end the deadly violence that has scarred New Jersey's largest city marked the funeral services Saturday for three college-age youths killed execution-style a week earlier.
Mayor Cory A. Booker was interrupted by applause several times at Metropolitan Baptist Church as he passionately urged the people of Newark to make a difference and help fight a murder rate that has spiked in recent years.
1010 WINS AUDIO: Kathleen Maloney Reports
``Enough is enough!'' Booker thundered as he pounded a podium next to a flower-draped coffin containing the body of 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, an aspiring fashion model and social work major at Delaware State University who was remembered by his classmates as good-hearted and always wearing a smile.
Later, at a service for 18-year-old Terrance Aeriel at overflowing New Hope Baptist Church, Booker said to shouts of encouragement from the overflow crowd, ``I will not break, I will not bow, I will not give in. This issue will not define us.''
1010 WINS VIDEO: Newark Mourns Three Lives Cut Short
It was a day of mourning in the city, with funerals for Harvey, Aeriel and 20-year-old Iofemi Hightower.
Terrance Aeriel's sister, Natasha Aeriel, was shot in the head during the attack but survived and has helped investigators identify a suspect in the case.
The three victims were ordered to kneel in front of a wall before each was shot in the back of the head. Robbery was the apparent motive, authorities have said.
The brutal killings sent shock waves through Newark, a city that has seen its murder rate increase 50 percent in the last decade to a total of 106 in 2006. Sixty murders had already been committed in the city through last weekend.
All four victims were Newark residents who were active in their school marching bands. Hightower and the Aeriels attended West Side High School, while Harvey graduated from University High.
Terrance Aeriel, known as T.J., was ordained as a minister at the age of 13 in 2002. He was remembered for his devotion to the church and his work with various youth organizations.
Of Harvey, who was the drum major at Malcolm X. Shabazz High School because University High didn't have a marching band, Rev. David Jefferson Sr. said at his funeral Saturday, ``If 'Shawny' were here today, he'd say, 'Celebrate!' He was a drum major, and he is just playing somewhere else now.''
At Ariel's funeral, which drew an overflow crowd, a friend remembered the ordained minister as someone who reached out to help others even as a youngster.
``As I grew up with him, he never changed,'' said friend Victoria Irving.
``He stayed the same. He always had God on his mind. That's what I loved about him. And he was a great help to me,'' Irving said.
At services for Hightower at tiny Grace Temple Baptist Church, her aunt, Gloria Hightower called her niece ``a beautiful person inside and out'' who had strived to elevate herself ``beyond what we all see around us.'' Hightower was working two jobs this summer and was in the process of enrolling at Delaware State.
Meanwhile, authorities continued to search for more suspects wanted in connection with the killings.
Booker on Thursday announced the arrest of 28-year-old Jose Carranza (above left) and a 15-year-old male, who was not identified because of his age, in connection with the triple murder. Another male teenager was arrested Friday night, and on Saturday authorities announced an arrest warrant for Rodolfo Godinez, 24, (right) described as ``a principal player'' in the case.
Scores of students from Delaware State University, where Harvey and the Aeriel siblings were students, attended the funerals, as did Gov. Jon S. Corzine, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, state Attorney General Anne Milgram and numerous Newark city officials.
``As a human being, not just your governor, I am here with a broken heart, a sad heart, a heavy heart,'' Corzine said at Harvey's funeral. ``These children deserved better. They represented the best, and they represented promise.''
