Four men and three juveniles face charges in connection with the deadly shooting of a 14-year-old aspiring basketball player who was killed on her way to a New Jersey restaurant last month, the prosecutor's office announced Tuesday.
Six of the suspects are in custody and a 22-year-old man, Baseem Williams, remains wanted, officials said. The charges come nearly a month after Nazerah Bugg was fatally shot Sept. 20 near Clinton and Main streets in Paterson. A 15-year-old girl who was also shot is still recovering, prosecutors said.
Evidence from the scene indicates two shooters using different guns fired at least a dozen shots toward the group Bugg was with, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said. Neither Bugg nor the 15-year-old girl who was wounded were believed to be the intended targets, Valdes said.
The shooting is thought to have been in retaliation to an earlier shooting several blocks away, in which the car of a 17-year-old was shot at, Valdes said. The same 17-year-old is one of the suspects charged in Bugg's death. Two 16-year-olds were charged, along with a 20-year-old, a 22-year-old and a 19-year-old.
The four adults face murder charges, among other crimes. The prosecutor said she hoped to try the juveniles as adults, in which case they too would be charged with murder.
Friends and family have said Bugg, a freshman at International High School who was set to play varsity basketball at Kennedy High School, had the potential to play professionally one day.
They described her as a good girl who was always smiling.
