The 33-year-old city woman was shot and wounded as she and her husband and others sat in a parked car.
A file photo of a Trenton police car on South Clinton Avenue. TRENTON — A woman shot in the head on East State Street Monday night was the wife of high-ranking Crips gangster Paul “P Funk” Jiles, police sources said, and city officials now fear the possibility of retaliatory shootings.
“I would like the public to realize that innocent bystanders are being shot down in our streets,” Councilwoman Kathy McBride said last night. McBride has repeatedly pleaded with the state to bolster the efforts of Trenton’s police department amid rampant street violence.
The 33-year-old city woman was shot and wounded as she and her husband and others sat in a parked car about 9:20 p.m. Though the woman, who has not been identified, is expected to survive because the bullet did not cause any skull damage, she developed a brain bleed and remains in the hospital, police said.
In 2008, police called Jiles and cohort Kerry Thacker “long established Crips gang leaders.” Jiles is under indictment after he was allegedly caught carrying a gun on a city street in October 2011. A trial date in that case is scheduled for May 14, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said.
A police spokesman would not release the names of any victims in the Monday shooting, and would not comment on whether investigators believe anyone in the car, parked on East State Street near the intersection with South Olden Avenue, was the target of the gunman.
From across the street, three gunmen wearing black masks emerged on foot and began shooting at the car, Lt. Mark Kieffer said. Multiple rounds were fired, one of which struck the wife in the head, another hitting a woman in another car making a right turn at the intersection.
Immediately after the gunfire subsided, the husband sped to St. Francis Medical Center seeking treatment for his wife.
The 56-year-old woman who had been turning from Olden onto East State drove to the East District police precinct on Cuyler Avenue several blocks away, where she sought help from officers there. She had been shot in the left shoulder, Kieffer said.
No one else was hurt during the shooting, police said. No arrests have been made.
Jiles was active in the gang lifestyle over the last decade. In 2006, he was arrested on weapons charges, then sentenced to five years in prison in June 2007, the prosecutor’s office said yesterday.
During the height of gang conflict in Trenton in 2005, Jiles was shot at that June by a member of the rival Gangster Killer Bloods (GKB). The bullets missed Jiles and struck a woman in the chest instead, the prosecutor’s office said.
Just this January, 26-year-old Leroy Tutt admitted shooting at Jiles, whom prosecutors continued to call a high-ranking Crip. The bystander recovered, and Tutt was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Jiles was on Liberty Street and Kuhn Alley in Trenton’s Franklin Park section in October 2011 when he was arrested by police who had seen him throw a silver handgun into a car. The officers arrested him when they found Jiles did not have a permit for the Seecamp .32-caliber ACP, according to the indictment filed Dec. 1, 2011. That second-degree charge for unlawful possession of a weapon is set for trial in May, the prosecutor’s office said.
As the city heads toward summer, elected officials are bracing for more of the shootings like the one that wounded Jiles’ wife. McBride last night was on her way to visit the 56-year-old shot in the shoulder Monday at the hospital, saying the woman was an innocent bystander to the violent gangland shooting.
With Trenton’s police force still down from layoffs in 2011, McBride reiterated her hope Gov. Chris Christie and the state will step in with assistance.
“And as a councilperson, I’m going to do everything in my power to get help from the governor,” she said.
Councilman George Muschal, a former city cop, likewise fears crime in the city will only worsen. An early-morning shooting on Remsen Street just a block from his home and business last week left 10 bullet holes in a home, he said. No one was injured.
Anyone with information on the case should call police at (609) 989-4170, or the Confidential Tip Line at (609) 989-3663.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
CONNECT WITH US:
On mobile or desktop:
• Like Times of Trenton on Facebook
• Follow @TimesofTrenton on Twitter