Jersey City

2 Arrested in New Jersey May Shooting That Killed 2, Wounded 4

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What to Know

  • Prosecutors have announced the arrests of two suspects in a New Jersey shooting in May that killed two men and wounded four other people.
  • The Hudson County prosecutor’s office said federal marshals arrested 21-year-old Cooleone McNeil of Jersey City at a movie theater in Elizabeth on Thursday. Omire Rios-Williams, 19, had been arrested in June in Allentown, Pennsylvania and was already awaiting trial in a May 3 slaying, prosecutors said.
  • McNeil and Rios-Williams remained in custody; it’s unclear whether they have attorneys and listed numbers for them couldn’t be found Sunday.

Prosecutors have announced the arrests of two suspects in a New Jersey shooting in May that killed two men and wounded four other people.

The Hudson County prosecutor’s office said federal marshals arrested 21-year-old Cooleone McNeil of Jersey City at a movie theater in Elizabeth on Thursday. Omire Rios-Williams, 19, had been arrested in June in Allentown, Pennsylvania and was already awaiting trial in a May 3 slaying, prosecutors said.

Both are charged with murder, conspiracy and attempted murder as well as weapons offenses in the May 21 shooting in Jersey City that killed 25-year-old Randolph Black Jr. and 26-year-old Jason Crutcher. Three men, aged 25, 26 and 35, and a 20-year-old woman were taken to hospitals.

Mayor Steven Fulop said at the time that “six people were sitting in a car and two shooters walked up to that specific car and began firing.” He called the night “a tough one for our city and heartbreaking” and said the city was “in a fragile place with regards to an increase in gun violence.”

Cycles of violence, he said, can stem from desperation due to lack of monetary, educational and employment opportunities, but a split-second choice can permanently change not only shooter’s and victims’ lives but those of friends and family and “neighbors that have PTSD from living in an environment where that occurred.”

McNeil and Rios-Williams remained in custody; it’s unclear whether they have attorneys and listed numbers for them couldn’t be found Sunday.

Jersey City, second to Newark in population in the Garden State, is across the Hudson River from New York City.

Copyright The Associated Press
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