Police were called out to the first block of Sanhican Drive around 2:30 p.m. after one 911 caller reported a man wounded inside a house.
TRENTON — A man was gunned down inside a vacant West Ward home yesterday afternoon, marking the capital city’s first homicide in more than a month, authorities said.
Police were called out to the first block of Sanhican Drive around 2:30 p.m. after one 911 caller reported a man wounded inside a house. The address identified in the call was one of many vacant homes on the residential street.
“When officers arrived, they found an individual who had been shot,” Lt. Steve Varn said.
The man, whom police had not positively identified last night, was pronounced dead at the scene, Varn said.
No arrests have been made in the case. Four young men were being held in the back seats of several police and sheriff’s vehicles at the scene yesterday, but authorities did not say whether they would be questioned as witnesses or suspects.
The killing is the first slaying investigation for the new Mercer County Homicide Task Force, which took Trenton’s homicide detectives out of the city department and combined them with the county’s for a new force. Yet virtually all of the detectives already have extensive experience in homicide investigation in the city — 2013 alone has been Trenton’s deadliest year on record since August.
No motive was apparent in the killing, but residents of Sanhican Drive have complained about rampant drug-dealing in the area and that the vacant homes make it easy for anyone to hide illicit activity that could lead to violence.
Detectives from the Robbery/Assault unit who remain part of Trenton police were investigating another West Ward shooting yesterday that left a man with a leg wound.
Shortly before 1:30 p.m., the victim was on the 600 block of Rutherford Avenue when gunfire rang out and he was hit in the leg. He was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, and doctors there said his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
Fred “Mr. Pooh” Scott, who was shot multiple times including in the head on Highland Avenue late Thursday night, remained alive but in critical condition, authorities said yesterday. Scott had previously been identified as a high-ranking Bloods gang member.
Anyone with information can reach the homicide task force at (609) 989-6406, or call the Trenton police Confidential Tip Line at (609) 989-3663.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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