New York City

Teen Arrested in Newburgh Halloween Party Shooting That Killed 2 Women

What to Know

  • Two women were killed at a Halloween party in Newburgh over the weekend
  • The women were shot when someone opened fire after what may have been some sort of dispute, police said
  • A vigil for the women was planned Monday afternoon

Police say they've arrested the 17-year-old boy wanted in the shooting deaths of two young women at a Halloween party in Orange County last weekend. 

Nija Johnson of Newburgh was taken into custody outside of New York state Friday afternoon. Police were expected to release more details Monday. 

Tabitha Cruz, 20, and Omani Free, 18, were gunned down at an apartment party in Newburgh at about 1 a.m. Sunday. Authorities said the two women were standing near the DJ booth when gunfire erupted and they were hit. 

Five other people were wounded in the shooting, but they were all expected to survive. Police said some sort of dispute broke out shortly before the shooting.

Free was a high school senior at Newburgh Free Academy and had made a last-minute decision to go to the party, about five blocks from her home, with a friend, said her mother, Rhonda Valentine-Free. 

Valentine-Free said she had left home to go to her own social engagement and didn't know her daughter had decided to go to the party. She said she and her husband first got word that something had happened when a friend of their 15-year-old son who had been at the party called to say their daughter had been shot. She said they went to a hospital, where their daughter died hours later.

Students at Newburgh Free Academy joined others in the community Monday to remember the two women, one of whom was a senior at the school. 

Two other men, 21-year-old Rainier Hamilton and 20-year-old Tyson Oliveira, were arrested hours after the party on charges of tampering with physical evidence. Hamilton is also charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Both men were arraigned Monday in city court and ordered held on $50,000 bail. Their assigned lawyers couldn't be reached for comment. 

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