New Jersey has seen three homicides in the last three days, all striking in different parts of the state. Two were men, one was a woman; two were young, one was old; and two were domestic disputes, while the other was a violent episode of an inner-city gang war.
On the morning of August 12, Harold Kendrick Jr., 29 years old, was shot six times while sitting in an idling car in Paterson. The assailant fled; Kendrick’s car rolled forward through the intersection of Temple Avenue and 7th, and crashed into the fence of somebody’s house. He was alive when the police found him, blood running down his shirtless chest, but died before he could be taken to the hospital.
Temple Avenue between 6th and 7th has seen a huge upswing in shootings; the week previously, another young man had been shot in the hip. The Paterson police released a statement attributing the murder to the rivalry of two “groups,” but they stopped short of calling them gangs. No suspects have been arrested so far in the investigation of Kendrick’s murder.
The investigation is no doubt helped by the gunshot detectors and cameras all throughout Paterson; whenever a gun is fired in the city, a GPS locator pinpoints it down to a few feet, and cameras on every streetlight swivel around to inspect the scene. It’s a piece of high-tech crime fighting technology that’s already seen use in East Orange and Newark, and will be incredibly helpful in capturing killers throughout Paterson.
The next day, a 30-year-old woman, Letizia Zindell, was strangled to death in her Toms River house by her former fiancée. Frank Frisco, 36, had just gotten out of jail the day before, and after killing Zindell, hung himself in his own house. Zindell died in a quiet suburban neighborhood, just blocks from the Ocean County Mall, in a tragic reminder that domestic murders can happen anywhere.
In the same vein, on Thursday a 75-year-old Cliffside Park man died after being struck in the head by his daughter. In an argument over a minor issue, Sonia Jecmenica-Castillo, 40, punched Miodrag Jecmenica in the face, causing him to have a fatal heart attack. Jecmenica-Castillo was arrested and charged with the assault; after the autopsy results, she might be charged with manslaughter.
This is Bergen County’s 8th homicide this year. I pay attention to Bergen County statistics more closely, as it’s my own county, and it’s one of the more richer and suburban counties of the state. When I was in high school, the stereotype was that anything in Bergen County below Route 4 was the “ghetto” (Hackensack, Fairview, Teaneck, Lodi, Fort Lee) and everything in Bergen County above Route 4 was the rich, quiet, safe suburbs (Saddle River, Norwood, Mahwah, Alpine, Cresskill). Sure enough, every single one of the eight murders has been south of Route 4.
This homicide in Cliffside Park is the third domestic killing, after a choking in Elmwood Park and stabbing in Little Ferry. A fatal shooting during an armed robbery in Garfield, and a gang-related stabbing in Hackensack are more ominous and vicious types of killings. Three hit-and-runs make up the rest; one being the brutal and reckless killing of an elderly woman by a fleeing felon, and the others more ‘innocent’ hit and runs, if such a phrase can be used.
Because of Bergen County’s status as my home and its fairly moderate amount of murders, at least compared to Newark, it’s an interesting microcosm for homicide in society in general. While Bergen County has the same amount of murders as Union County, it differs in that the latter’s are generally confined to inner-city Elizabeth; Bergen County’s murders are spread out all over. It should be always kept in mind that the chances of becoming a random victim of murder are fairly low; most victims know the attacker, as can be seen in all the domestic and gang-related killings. Murder by total stranger is almost unknown, especially in the inner-ring suburbs of Bergen County. I’ll be continuing to track the murders, with special attention on Bergen County. Be safe.
2009 New Jersey homicide map - http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd
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