Newark mayor: 'Whole city is hurting' after adult, 8-year-old boy die of gunshots
May 4, 2023, 7:34 p.m.
Police also shot and killed a man they say was running from the scene with a gun.
Officials are investigating Wednesday night’s fatal shootings of a man and 8-year old child in Newark, as well as the police shooting of a man authorities say was armed and fleeing when officers responded.
Another person in the home was also shot, but survived and was in stable condition at University Hospital Thursday afternoon, according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Authorities have not yet released the names of anyone involved in the incident.
“Our whole city is hurting today after the tragic shooting,” Baraka said.
Police responded to a 911 call about people being shot inside a Johnson Avenue home just after 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, state Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office said. When they arrived, officers found one man dead from a gunshot wound and an 8-year old boy who had been shot, the attorney general’s office said. The boy was taken to University Hospital and was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
Police also found an adult man with a firearm running away from the residence and chased after him, the attorney general’s office said. Two officers fired their weapons and the gunman was fatally wounded, it said. Under state law, the attorney general’s office investigates any shooting by police and presents its findings to grand jury, which will decide if charges should be filed against the officers.
“When we get to a point where we can’t protect our children, then we are in a very volatile and difficult place,” Baraka said.
He said the victims and gunman knew each other.
There were three weapons found at the crime scene and they can be traced back to previous crimes in Newark, Baraka said. Drugs were also present at the scene, Baraka said.
The mayor encouraged the Newark community to come together to deal with issues of mental health, drug abuse, anger and conflict. He called on the city’s Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery “to remove the conditions of violence before they result in this kind of trauma.”