During a news conference last night to promote today’s National Night Out, Mack assailed the press and state government.
By Alex Zdan
and Jenna Pizzi
TRENTON — Anthony Morris saw the bright muzzle flashes stabbing through the night from underneath a tree on East State Street.
Late Saturday night, witnessing what he now thinks was a robbery gone wrong, Morris ran as if in a nightmare as gunfire rang out from under the tree and up the street. An 18-year-old man running alongside Morris was shot in the leg and cut down.
“When he fell, that’s when I knew it was real,” Morris said yesterday.
Less than two blocks away, Morris’ mother Joann heard the multiple gunshots from her upstairs bedroom and went running outside. She found her son, wide-eyed but unharmed, after he had escaped through an alleyway. But her boyfriend, 52-year-old Barry Church, was on the ground and still just a few yards away from the tree on East State Street, his arm over his face and a bullet in his side.
“So I got up on the corner, I saw him hunched over on the porch,” she said. “I just started screaming.”
Church’s death was one of four homicides that rocked the city over the weekend — a burst of death and violence that punctuated Mayor Tony Mack’s request Friday for $10 million in extra state funding this year to hire back more police officers. So far this year, the city has recorded 27 homicides.
Yesterday Sen. Shirley Turner, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora and Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman said they would support Mack’s proposal for the state to provide additional funding to hire police. All three said for the sake of the city’s residents they hope that the governor’s office is more responsive to Mack than it has been to their own requests for public safety support.
On Sunday morning, August 4, 2013, evidence markers on the steps at 1158 East State St. in Trenton, New Jersey, part of the scene where a double homicide occurred.
Michael Mancuso/The Times
The Saturday night shooting that took Church’s life also claimed a 22-year-old West Ward man, Hassan Allen, who, with a fatal bullet wound, lost control of his SUV on East State Street and crashed into parked cars and two women.
One of them, Philadelphia resident Carmen Wright, 23, remained in extremely critical condition at Capital Health Regional Medical Center yesterday after she was thrown by Allen’s vehicle.
Police could not confirm a motive in the shooting, perhaps the most convoluted incident of the bloody weekend. Also killed was 21-year-old Hamilton resident Abraham Jeditoe, who was stabbed to death on Chambers Street Sunday morning.
Nyquan Owens, a 20-year-old city man arrested on weapons charges July 26 and set for trial in another weapons case today, was shot in the head and killed early Saturday morning. No arrests have been made in any of the cases.
During a news conference last night to promote today’s National Night Out, Mack, in an animated address before a crowd of 80, assailed the press and state government. He admitted to “burning up on the inside” with anger over the way his city is portrayed in the media and over the state aid cuts he says led to massive police layoffs. He urged residents to keep their faith in Trenton, and by extension, him.
“See, I believe in you, I believe in you,” Mack said. “You know why? I’m just like you.”
“You’re looking at someone who benefitted from Trenton,” he said. “I want you to let nothing, nothing deter you from your goal.”
On Friday, Mack sent a letter to Gov. Chris Christie asking the state for $46.4 million to hire 75 officers and pay their salaries for four years. Mack’s estimates for the money needed to rehire the cops ran to $133,000 per officer, despite the fact that any rehires would be officers with the least seniority.
“I guarantee that every dollar will be used for the purposes of hiring police,” Mack said in a statement.
Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said there are only two officers who remain on the layoff list to be hired back. Many of the others have been reassigned in Trenton or have found jobs elsewhere. The city would have to solicit a list of hires from the state and possibly field a new police academy class if Mack’s plan for hiring more cops was to go through. Academy training alone takes nearly six months, however.
The State Police have been running periodic operations in Trenton since December in response to a previous request from the city for help amid the diminished manpower of the police department. Rivera said he spoke with the State Police superintendent yesterday and will meet with acting Attorney General John Hoffman soon to get additional help for the city.
On Sunday morning, August 4, 2013, Trenton police investigate the scene of a homicide on the 400 block of Chambers St.. opposite Trenton Central High School. At the same time, police were investigating a double homicide on the 1100 block of East State St.
Michael Mancuso/The Times
“It’s been a tough year for us, here at the city,” Rivera said during the National Night Out news conference. “I want to start off, No. 1, by assuring you that the Trenton Police Department, New Jersey State Police, Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office … are all working diligently to address this crime wave we’re facing.”
Mack said last night he had not received any response from Christie’s office regarding his letter. He continued his assault on public perception of the city by challenging what he sees as a hidden agenda from the news media, and urged his supporters to parse news accounts.
“When you hear something about your city you want to read it, then read it again and then read between the lines,” Mack said.
Mack never directly mentioned his indictment on six counts of federal corruption charges and his looming trial set to begin next January, but his air of defiance made it clear he intends to hold onto his office.
“I’m strong as ever,” Mack said. “I didn’t get here by being a wimp and I didn’t stay here by being a wimp.”
Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney has said the state would not work with Mack because he is under federal indictment. But an impassioned Mack refuted those claims, saying that he has not seen any decrease in the willingness of the state to provide funding because he is still in office.
“Stop trying to get political points on someone else’s downfall,” Mack said.
He said the cut in state aid that resulted in police layoffs came 90 days before he was sworn in, and the groundwork for soaring crime was laid during the administration of his predecessor.
“Let’s dispel it with a fact: Before Mayor Mack took office the state had already cut money for police,” Mack said.
Anyone with information on these crimes should call police at (609) 989-4170, or the Confidential Tip Line at 989-3663.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705. Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or 989-5717.
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