At Least 20 Injured at Shooting at New Jersey Art Festival
(CNN)Twenty-ii people, including a teenager, were injured early on Sunday in a shooting at a 24-hr art festival in Trenton, New Jersey, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said.
Police identified the suspect as Tahaij Wells, 33, who is believed to have been killed by police, prosecutor Angelo Onofri said. Wells had just been released from prison on homicide-related charges, Onofri said. Officials accept also charged Amir Armstrong, 23, on weapons offenses.
"It absolutely could have been worse given the bars space and the number of shots that appear to take been fired," Onofri said.
The shooting appears to exist the event of a gang dispute, he said. It is non related to terrorism.
Prior to the shooting, Onofri said there were "numerous altercations" inside and outside the festival. Police had been trying to shut the festival downward.
Seventeen of the 22 victims transported to area hospitals were treated for gunshot wounds, according to Capital Health Regional Medical Center and St. Francis Medical Centre.
Onofri updated the conditions of the iv people who were all listed in critical condition, saying iii of them -- including the 13-twelvemonth-old boy -- have been upgraded to stable condition.
The fourth person listed in critical status is believed to besides be a suspect and is the only person still in critical condition. He has yet to exist fully interviewed, Onorfri said.
Authorities have heard that as many as 1,000 people were in the area at the time of the shooting, Onofri said. The festival entrances had no metallic detectors, he said.
'Information technology was pretty gnarly'
Witnesses told CNN affiliate WPVI the shooting happened around two:45 a.thousand. at the Art All Night-Trenton festival at the Roebling Wire Works Building on the due south side of the city.
"All of a sudden, my brother goes to me, 'Y'all hear that gunfire?' I go, 'It sounds like fireworks.' He said, 'No, that'due south gunfire.' Next thing you lot know, nosotros turn around and everybody's running downwards the street. All hell broke loose," Angelo Nicolo of Trenton told the station.
Nicolo saw i person with a gunshot wound, he said.
"I saw two police officers escort a guy that got shot in the leg. They bandaged him up and whisked him away before the ambulance came here. It was pretty gnarly," Nicolo said.
Festival an annual result
Police are questioning witnesses to make up one's mind if more suspects could be at large, WPVI reported.
Investigators are also looking into a peradventure related attempted carjacking nigh the festival, Onofri said. A human being approached three people in a vehicle and "may or may not" have pointed a gun at them, the prosecutor said. The car sustained damage, he said.
Before it was canceled, the festival had been scheduled to run from 3 p.m. Saturday to 3 p.grand. Sunday. Information technology featured more 1,500 works of art, alive murals and graffiti, dozens of musical performances and a film festival. The outcome is in its 12th yr, its website says.
Several hours after the shooting, a handful of constabulary officers remained outside the industrial red-brick building, criminal offence scene tape blocking off certain areas and the Art All Dark sign still hanging higher up one entrance. Garbage from the event was stacked on superlative of trash cans. There was piddling sign of the shooting outside the building.
At an adjacent shopping heart and supermarket, patrons went about their shopping every bit usual Sunday morn.
"We're even so processing much of this and we don't take many answers at this fourth dimension, just please know that our staff, our volunteers, our artists and musicians all seem to be salubrious and deemed for. Our sincere, heartfelt sympathies are with those who were injured," festival organizers said on Facebook.
The Mercer Canton'south Prosecutors Office Homicide Task Force will atomic number 82 the investigation as there was an officeholder-involved shooting. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is profitable local and state constabulary in the investigation.
New Bailiwick of jersey Gov. Phil Murphy toured the scene and told reporters the shooting was "an awful, awful tragedy and still some other case of senseless gun violence."
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/17/us/new-jersey-art-festival-shooting/index.html
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