Police found Hamidullah Hardy fatally wounded on the front porch of a home on the first block of Cleveland Avenue.
TRENTON — Violence in the capital city that left eight people wounded in six shootings over Memorial Day weekend continued yesterday, as a 34-year-old city man was gunned down in the Wilbur section shortly after midnight.
Police found Hamidullah Hardy fatally wounded on the front porch of a home on the first block of Cleveland Avenue, Lt. Steve Varn said. Hardy died minutes later and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Though the exact location where Hardy was shot and the number of assailants remained unclear late yesterday, police do not think he was ambushed on the porch.
“We believe the shots being fired happened down the street,” Varn said.
Hardy did not live at the residence where he died, and the people living there were unhurt, Varn said. Their relationship to Hardy was unclear.
Neighbors, who indicated several women live inside the home, said that a fusillade of shots — ten or more — shattered the foggy night air around midnight.
Details among the neighbors were sketchy, as many did not want to know what was happening on their street.
Hamidullah Hardy, seen here in an undated Department of Corrections photo, was shot and killed on Cleveland Avenue in Trenton early the morning of 5/29/13 “I don’t mess around, man,” said one man, who refused to give his name due to fears of retaliation.
Hardy’s death is Trenton’s 13th slaying of the year and the second since Saturday’s shooting death of 19-year-old Devahje Bing. Last year, the city’s 13th homicide of the year occurred on Sept. 8.
Weekend violence included Bing’s killing, a gunfight on Martin Luther King Boulevard, and a man shot in the face on Reservoir Street during a total of six shootings through Monday night.
There are no immediate indications the crimes are connected, but there were several shootings over just three days in the Wilbur section of the city, which encompasses Cleveland Avenue.
Police are still investigating, including the case of a 23-year-old shot in the buttocks on Walnut Avenue around 8:15 p.m. Sunday. Walnut Avenue was also the scene where a man was shot multiple times near the intersection with Monmouth Street on Monday afternoon, and four juveniles and two adults arrested for allegedly shooting at a man in a car hours later. No injuries were reported in that incident.
Dion Clark, a longtime civic activist who lives on Walnut Avenue, said he heard and saw Sunday’s shooting victim.
“I heard this guy outside hollering, ‘Somebody help me, somebody help me,’” Clark said. “And I looked out the window and there’s this guy limping up the street.”
The man collapsed near the intersection with South Cook Avenue, where he was found by police.
Clark said just last night he heard what sounded like a large street fight on the 200 block of Walnut Avenue. The altercation came barely an hour after troopers from the New Jersey State Police TEAMS tactical unit were on the block, where Trenton police said Vice detectives were executing a search warrant for a drug investigation.
Two other people were wounded in city shootings over the holiday weekend.
“It’s gonna be a hot summer,” Clark said.
While police have solved Bing’s murder with the arrest of a 15-year-old on Memorial Day, leads were scarce in Hardy’s killing. Police did not have a suspect description or number of suspects.
At least one SUV was towed from the homicide scene on Cleveland Avenue yesterday morning, but police would not say why the vehicle was taken. No arrests have been made in the case, police said.
Anyone with information on the crimes 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.
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