A midday shooting in front of Italian Peoples Bakery in Chambersburg makes 2013 Trenton's deadliest year on record.
TRENTON — A midday shooting outside a landmark Chambersburg bakery yesterday left a 26-year-old man dead and pushed Trenton’s homicide count to 32, making 2013 the capital city’s deadliest year on record.
The fatal shooting in front of Italian Peoples Bakery on Butler Street comes barely three-quarters of the way through the year, following months of cold-blooded murders, nearly daily shootings and street violence. It shatters a record set in 2005 during all-out gang warfare between rival sets.
It comes nearly two years after mass police layoffs, but two weeks after state troopers surged into Trenton as part of the Targeted Integrated Deployment Effort (TIDE). The new crime-fighting strategy was designed to push back against levels of violence that state officials said were unacceptable.
“It’s very frustrating,” Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said. “We know that right now we have the TIDE initiative here, State Police is here. We have the Summer Initiative. We have the officers out there, targeting violent crime. … We’re doing everything we can with the resources we have available.”
Brandon Nance, a Trenton resident, was killed after being chased for a block and a half by two gunmen, who fired at him as he ran, police said. Nance ran from Hudson Street and Dittmar Alley, near busy Hamilton Avenue, toward Butler Street as he tried to escape his pursuers.
“The victim was shot at and then chased down Peoples Bakery Lane to the front of the bakery, where the suspects fired numerous additional shots at him,” police spokesman Lt. Steve Varn said.
Bystanders in the area said they heard at least five gunshots in the area around the time police were called at 12:22 p.m. One witness, a Hamilton man who did not want to give his name for fear of retaliation, came around the corner and said he saw Nance lying face down on the sidewalk in front of the bakery. At the same time, the suspects ran past, shoving handguns into their waistbands as they went, he said.
Paramedics rushed Nance to nearby St. Francis Medical Center rather than the North Trenton trauma unit at Capital Health Regional Medical Center, but efforts to revive Nance were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 12:53 p.m., Varn said.
Rivera said that Nance was well-known to city police and had a “long, extensive” criminal history. Police sources said that the department is on high alert for retaliation following the murder.
In 2006, Nance was a passenger in a car driven by an alleged Gangster Killer Bloods member who tried to flee while being chased by police. The vehicle crashed, and he was arrested.
“This is what happens sometimes: when you lead this type of lifestyle these things happen,” Rivera said.
No arrests had been made in the homicide as of last night, and police did not release any suspect descriptions. But the witness to their flight from the scene described the killers as black males, one 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches tall, the other 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall.
Police set up at least two crime scenes during their investigation: one in Dittmar Alley, a narrow passage where five shell casings could be seen on the pavement. Discarded bottles of malt liquor were placed next to them, serving as markers alongside yellow evidence cones.
Several evidence cones also were visible on the sidewalk at the bakery’s doorway, denoting shell casings found there as well. The manager of Italian Peoples tried to perform CPR on Nance before paramedics arrived there, the Hamilton resident said.
Rivera said he stops at Italian Peoples two or three times per week to get bagels and pastries for his office, and was last there Wednesday morning.
“This is an area that is a relatively safe area, and it’s unfortunate this individual came from the Hudson and Hamilton Avenue area, where we have had drug problems,” he said.
“We have to try and preserve those good neighborhoods in the city,” he added.
The broad daylight murder highlights increasing violent crimes, including shootings, which occur during the day. Rivera acknowledged it was a problem for the city but said it should be viewed in a larger context.
“Any killing concerns me,” Rivera said.
“We’re going to have to sit down, as we always do, look at the plans, look at the circumstances and plan accordingly,” he said.
“I’m working with the hand I’ve been dealt,” Rivera said. “If it shows that were going to have to have additional people, were going to have to make those adjustments.”
Nine-year-old Zy Bragg was in the backyard of his house a block behind the bakery early yesterday afternoon when he heard the gunfire that took Nance’s life.
“Then I heard five gunshots, like ‘pow pow pow pow,’ and then one big ‘pow,’” he said.
Zy and his two cousins walked down to Butler Street and stood outside the crime scene tape at St. Joachim’s Church yesterday afternoon, watching the police do their work.
“There’s 31 murders in Trenton,” Zy said, before he was told there were officially 32.
“Sometimes we listen to gunshots,” said Tyzir Hamilton, 12, one of the cousins.
All three said they feel safe in Trenton, in their home section of Chambersburg and with friends on East State Street and other areas.
“As long as we have cops and stuff and SWAT teams, I’m fine,” Tyzir said.
Anyone with information on the killing should call police at (609) 989-4170, or the Confidential Tip Line at 989-3663.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com.
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