Samuel Vincent is accused of carrying the 9-mm Jimenez handgun found at the scene by police, Weissman said.
TRENTON — It was meant to be a day for mourning and it turned into a day of violence.
Now, county officials believe they have in custody one of the men responsible for the gunfire that injured three people during a funeral service for another Trenton teen at Galilee Baptist Church last month.
Samuel Vincent, 18, of Trenton, is facing several second-degree weapons charges, after witnesses identified him as one of the people who participated in the April 22 shooting, Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Skylar Weissman said today during Vincent’s bail hearing.
Vincent is accused of carrying the 9-mm Jimenez handgun found at the scene by police, Weissman said.
The gun, which was loaded with hollow-point bullets and had its serial number sanded off, he said, was one of five believed to have been used in the gunfight.
The gunfight broke out during the funeral of 19-year-old Cagney Roberts, who had been shot and killed April 9 in Trenton.
There were more than 100 mourners in the church when the shooting began, according to police. Two men were hospitalized — one with a bullet wound to the neck — and a woman was treated for a graze wound to her thigh, police said at the time.
“I’ve been around a long time, but this is pretty heinous,” Weissman said during Vincent’s bail hearing this morning. “A man is being put to rest, and (Vincent) engaged in a gunfight just outside.”
Defense attorney Kathleen Redpath-Perez said Vincent was a friend of Cagney and was at the funeral to pay his respects. She said none of the bullets that ultimately hit the victims of the shooting came from the gun Vincent is accused of using.
“He was arrested simply because he doesn’t want to give information on the shooting,” she said.
Vincent had been arrested in connection with a robbery but had posted bail in connection with those charges at the time of the church shooting, Weissman said.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown set bail for Vincent on the weapons charges in the church shooting at $110,250, cash or bond, and Brown also said Vincent’s $50,000 bail on the robbery charge must be satisfied again for him to be released from custody.
A preliminary trial date of June 30 was set in the church shooting, court officials said.
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