The suspect leveled his weapon and fired numerous times at close range. Moore was hit several times, and was dead within moments, police said yesterday.
Joshua Moore, 17, killed on Dec. 3, 2012 while riding in a minivan on Pennington Avenue in Trenton. Police said Moore was pursued and gunned down after he crashed into a telephone pole. He was the city's 23rd homicide of the year.
TRENTON — Stuck in the driver’s seat of a van that was partially wrapped around a telephone pole, 17-year-old Joshua Moore sat helpless as a gunman walked up to the vehicle.
The suspect leveled his weapon and fired numerous times at close range. Moore was hit several times, and was dead within moments, police said yesterday.
Moore’s slaying on Pennington Avenue Monday night followed a vehicle pursuit through the West Ward by his killer and possibly other suspects, Lt, Steve Varn said.
“We believe he was being followed by another vehicle that began shooting at him,” Varn said.
An accidental collision with an another vehicle at the intersection of Reservoir Street disabled the van and sealed his fate, police said yesterday.
Moore’s death — the 23rd city homicide of 2012, and the 12th since Sept. 1 — left two blocks of Pennington Avenue and several blocks of Reservoir Street closed through yesterday morning as police investigators scoured the area for evidence.
No one else was reported injured, but police did not reveal whether Moore was alone inside the van or not. Police could not confirm whether Moore’s death is connected to a Sunday afternoon shooting that wounded a man and woman on Martin Luther King Boulevard, or any other recent city violence.
“We look at everything that happens to see if it connects,” Varn said. “We’re still not sure of the motive.”
In the wake of Moore’s death, a crowd of about 70 people angry about the killing flooded into the emergency room waiting area of Capital Health Regional Medical Center on Brunswick Avenue and had to be dispersed by police and Mercer County Sheriff’s officers, authorities said.
Trenton police, already stretched thin last night by the multi-block crime scene for the homicide, were called to the hospital about the irate group around 9:30 p.m., roughly two hours after the slaying. Unable to handle the disturbance with the units available, police called for assistance from the sheriff’s office, spokesman Officer William Osterman said yesterday.
A two-man sheriff’s car stationed downtown joined multiple city patrol units to break up the disturbance, and was on scene for about 90 minutes. The sheriff’s office did not have any reports of arrests or injuries, which would be handled by Trenton police.
Jayne O’Connor, a Capital Health spokeswoman, disagreed about the size of the disturbance and called it “a minor incident.”
Police investigate at the scene of a shooting and motor vehicle accident where a man was killed at the intersection of Pennington Avenue and Reservoir Street last night.
Friends and family at the hospital for the homicide victim were involved in the disturbance, which originated between two people and grew to include several others, O’Connor said.
“There were probably about six or eight people involved in the initial scuffle,” she said. “None was hurt, to our knowledge.”
Trenton police could not confirm arrests or injuries.
Earlier in the night, officers and detectives had backed up a crowd of about 20 upset people to near the intersection with Calhoun Street, where additional crime scene tape was set up. Many expressed anger that Moore’s body was being left in the van as police began their investigation. It was unclear if that group later went to the hospital and was involved in the fracas there.
Leaving a person’s body at the exact spot they were killed is a common investigative technique when there is no way to save the victim’s life, police said.
At his weekly question and answer session at City Hall yesterday morning, Mayor Tony Mack addressed the killing and city violence as a whole.
“You will not get an argument out of me for public safety,” Mack said.
“We understand your pain, because we suffer it every day,” he added.
With city police department still suffering from over 100 layoffs last year, Mack said he believes the department and Police Director Ralph Rivera are maximizing resources to do the best they can.
“I do know there are too many shootings and killings,” he said. “I want our city to be safe, and that’s what they’re working for.”
Anyone with information on the crime 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.