Murders in Bergen County, 2003 - today

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00048236f174dd95599c2&ll=40.839009,-74.034805&spn=0.136364,0.338173&z=12

A man kills his father while high on crack. A man shoots his wife in the back of the head after she says she wants to get a divorce. A mother drunkenly kicks and punches her 14-year-old son to death. An argument over a card game leaves a man riddled with bullets in a housing project. Some are spread up into the suburbs far north. The grittier and poorer cities have higher concentrations - Hackensack, Lodi, Garfield, Cliffside Park, Englewood - but bar fights, gang shootings, domestic disputes, drunken crashes, and robberies have left eighty-two people dead over the course over the past seven and a quarter years (three of these being police shootings).

Ralph Pinto was an eighteen-year-old boy with a plan to rob a drug dealer in South Hackensack in 2005. Little did he know that the dealer was a ranking member of the Latin Kings. They lured him to a parking lot in Lodi where they tried to kidnap him, and ended him leading his bullet-riddled body on the side of the road, and stabbing a female co-conspirator thirty times to silence her. The killers have been convicted.

In 2006, Paul Duncsak was followed into his Ramsey house and shot in the back of the head with a silenced low-caliber pistol by Edward Ates. Ates was convicted after an internet history search showed he had looked up websites on how to commit a perfect murder.

Ricky Smith Jr., 15, was sitting on a curb outside a house party in Teaneck in July 2006 when a fight that began between two rival gangs inside spilled out. A Blood from Paterson opened up the trunk of his car, pulled out a .357 Magnum, and fired into the crowd, hitting Ricky in the back and killing him.

William Marcucci, an associate with the Genovese crime family, was waiting in a car outside a diner in Saddle Brook in 2008 meeting up with an unknown person. While waiting, two hitmen approached him and pumped several shots into the side of his head through the window. He had possibly been suspected of stealing from illegal bookmaking proceeds.

Victor Garcia, 21, was hanging out in Hackensack in the summer of 2009 with a friend who had recently left DDP, a Dominican gang. Some gang members approached; Garcia's friend got away, but they mistook Garcia for him and gutted him with knives and slashed his throat. Garcia lingered for several days in the hospital before dying; the gang members were arrested.

Jonathan Beneduce and Michael Mirasola, two Queens men and possible associates of organized crime, were meeting up with an acquaintance in Teaneck to conduct a drug deal several weeks ago. While sitting in the parked car, Nicholas Kiriakakis of Queens, allegedly connected to the Greek mob, opened fire on them, killing them with multiple gunshot wounds.

This is only a sample of the destruction that wanton violence has left throughout Bergen County.

Homicide in New Jersey, 2009

With the start of a new year, I'm going to be more regular in updating this blog. Homicide in New Jersey in 2009 was at record lows, but still gang and drug violence, domestic disputes, and other acts of killing, premeditated and otherwise, claimed the lives of many in our state.

There were 349 homicides in New Jersey in 2009. Included in this number are nine double homicides, and one triple homicide - three people killed due to a maliciously set arson in a family home in Newark.

Out of these homicides, 294 were of the first degree - intentional or premeditated attacks that result in death. 43 were of the next degree - most of these being hit and run vehicular homicides, where death may not have been the intended outcome, but due to negligence or willful disregard for life, the victim died.

There were 13 justifiable homicides - 12 cases of police shooting a violent suspect, and one case of an armed citizen killing a robber in self-defense.

By gender:
In the cases that are known and that I have documented, 230 males and 85 females were killed. There is a discrepancy with the actual homicide numbers, but they follow this general ratio - men are far more likely to both be killers and be victims. There was only one instance where the gender of the deceased was unknown.

Breakdown by age:
Murder victims age - broad categories
0-17: 34
18-35: 196
36-65: 83
66+: 21

Murder victims age by decade of life
0-9: 15
10-19: 39
20-29: 126
30-39: 51
40-49: 42
50-59: 29
60-69: 7
70-79: 7
80-89: 9
90+: 1

Twenty victims' ages were unknown.

Homicides by county:

Essex: 117

Camden: 40

Hudson: 37

Passaic: 26

Middlesex: 21

Mercer: 18

Union: 15

Bergen: 12

Atlantic: 11

Burlington: 10

Cumberland: 9

Monmouth: 9

Ocean: 7

Cape May: 3

Morris: 3

Somerset: 3

Warren: 3

Gloucester: 2

Sussex: 2

Salem: 1

Hunterdon: 0

Many of these counties have one heavily urban area responsible for the majority of the killings - nearly all of Essex County's murders took place in the large urban landscape of Newark-East Orange-Irvington. Similarly, Union County and Camden County had Elizabeth and Camden respectively dragging them down. Other counties, like Bergen and Atlantic, had far more evenly dispersed homicides - but usually at lower rates than the counties with large urban slums.

Homicides by municipality:

Newark – 81

Camden – 32

Jersey City – 32

Paterson – 18

Trenton – 17

Irvington – 14

Elizabeth – 9

East Orange – 9

New Brunswick – 5

Vineland – 5

Mansfield (BC) – 4

Old Bridge – 4

Orange – 4

Atlantic City – 3

Egg Harbor Township – 3

Hackensack – 3

Neptune – 3

Passaic – 3

Piscataway – 3

Bridgeton – 2

Bridgewater – 2

Caldwell – 2

Lakewood – 2

Lawnside – 2

Long Branch – 2

Mansfield (WC) – 2

Mays Landing – 2

North Bergen – 2

Pemberton – 2

Plainfield – 2

Red Bank – 2

Springfield Township – 2

Toms River – 2

Willingboro – 2

Winslow – 2

Woodbridge – 2

Asbury Park – 1

Bayonne – 1

Belleville – 1

Berkeley Township – 1

Bloomfield – 1

Bloomingdale – 1

Buena – 1

Cape May Court House – 1

Carneys Point – 1

Chatham – 1

Cliffside Park – 1

Clifton – 1

Cherry Hill – 1

Collingswood – 1

Deptford – 1

East Brunswick – 1

East Rutherford – 1

Edison – 1

Elmwood Park – 1

Fairfield – 1

Garfield – 1

Gloucester – 1

Gloucester Township – 1

Haddonfield – 1

Hamilton (AC) – 1

Kearny – 1

Knowlton – 1

Linwood – 1

Little Egg – 1

Little Ferry – 1

Logan Township – 1

Lyndhurst – 1

Millburn – 1

Millville – 1

Montclair – 1

Montgomery – 1

Morris Township – 1

Newton – 1

North Brunswick – 1

Palisades Park – 1

Paramus – 1

Park Ridge – 1

Perth Amboy – 1

Pompton Lakes – 1

Rahway – 1

Roselle – 1

Roselle Park – 1

Sayreville – 1

Seaside Heights – 1

South Brunswick – 1

South Orange – 1

Stanhope – 1

Union – 1

Union City – 1

Upper Deerfield – 1

Verona – 1

Wall – 1

Wayne – 1

West Milford – 1

Wharton – 1

Wildwood – 1

Woodbine – 1

Woodlynne – 1

By method:

Shooting: 206

Stabbing: 41

Mitigated vehicular homicide: 37

Beating: 26

Strangling: 13

Intentional vehicular homicide: 9

Arson: 7

Abandonment: 1

Drowning: 1

Asphyxiation: 1

Unknown: 8

By month of homicide:

January: 28

February: 23

March: 26

April: 22

May: 34

June: 31

July: 35

August: 31

September: 26

October: 34

November: 29

December: 27

The rest of August: bloody nights in Newark

Newark had a bloody last few weeks, with three vicious shootings adding to the rapidly climbing list of Brick City homicide victims. It started off on August 15, when Jihad Springer, 21, was killed with a single gunshot to the chest a few blocks from Downtown Newark, and left for dead on the street. While Springer’s death was portrayed in the media as the average murder in Newark, the killing two days later garnered massive press attention.

Early in the morning hours of August 17, 14-year-old Keith Calhoun was hanging out with his friends on a corner on 12th and 7th, all members of the Bloods. While they were congregated, two men approached them, beginning to argue with them over a girl. It was allegedly Isiah Hemphill, 18, another Blood, who pulled out a handgun and fired into the group of youths, striking Calhoun in the back and killing him.

The press coverage was heavy, with Newark Mayor Cory Booker making statements saying he was going to clamp down on crime, and articles about the lives of both boys involved, and their families. The next week, after Albert Allen, 24, was murdered in South Ward, police began to make extensive arrests, confiscating pistols, three pounds of weed, cash, and a Mac-10 submachine gun. However, their arrests seemed to be out of coincidences – running across an armed robbery, being in the right place at the right time and witnessing a gangland gun battle – and three pounds of weed and several firearms is only the top of the surface in Newark.

Also, not too far outside of Newark, a robbery in Kearny ended tragically August 18, when two armed robbers burst into Rachel Jewelers in Kearny and murdered the proprietor in front of his children. The suspects fired a killing shot into 48-year-old Xavier Egoavil’s forehead after riddling his body with bullets, and fled the scene, scarring the peaceful town of Kearny with the brutal violence of the crime. Though towns like Kearny, Belleville and Maplewood seem suburban on the outside, it’s just reality that the violence and crime of Newark is only a town away.

Down in Middlesex County, there were reports of a homicide victim found in Cheesequake State Park on August 15, but the Star-Ledger provided no details of the victim. It’s frustrating when the media makes mention of such crimes, and then offers no follow-up; nevertheless, this unidentified victim is still added to the list of victims of homicide in New Jersey.

A few miles north in the Fords section of Woodbridge, intruders burst into a house perpetrating a horrifying double shooting, leaving 29-year-old Angel Vasquez dead, and his sister injured with multiple gunshot wounds. Angel Torres of Perth Amboy, 35, and two 17-year-old minors were arrested and charged in the homicide.

The last two murders this post will cover are the shooting of a 17-year-old young man in the broad daylight of the afternoon in Camden, and the strangling death of a 4-year-old girl by her mother in their house outside Morristown. One is incredibly common – Joshua Rosa is hardly the first teenager to die by the gun in Camden – and the other is not. Mary Gonzalez is Morris County’s first homicide of 2009, the year halfway over. Jenny Erazo-Rodriguez, 33, was arrested and charged in her daughter’s murder, and with the attempted murder of another of her children. It’s unlikely that Joshua Rosa’s killer will ever be brought to justice.

Bergen County's 8th murder, domestic disputes, and a gang war claims another victim

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

Crime update - August 2009

I apologize for not updating this blog, but I’ve been so busy with work that it’s been difficult to find the time.

The month of August has been a violent one so far for the state of New Jersey. After over a month without a single homicide, Camden has exploded in violence, with six murders in the last two weeks, with three taking place in a three block radius. On July 28, 18-year-old Albert Santana was gunned down on the street; on August 1, Joseph Jones, 40, was similarly killed with a barrage of gunfire just a block away. Six days later, 23-year-old Scott Ferguson was standing just another block away from the previous murder scene when two gunmen opened fire on him from a car and sped away.

Also in Camden, a double murder in a house near the Pennesauken border ramped up the year’s body count. Details are hazy, but after a burst of gunfire, Ramon Roman, a 16-year-old boy was dead, and a 68-year-old bystander, Juan Lopez, was dying from a wound from a stray bullet. Jose Feliciano of Camden, 24, was arrested and charged with the murders. And just two days ago on Sunday morning around 11AM, the body of Danielle Lindeborn, 22, was found shot once in the head on a Camden backroad. Her murder has not been solved.

In other inner-cities of New Jersey, the violence usually associated with the summer continues as usual. After shooting and critically wounding her boyfriend in a domestic dispute, Essex County Corrections Officer Kelly McKenith murdered her 4-month old baby before turning her firearm on herself in Newark’s south ward. Farther up north, Alkabir Diggs, 29, was shot in the chest and killed in a Newark high-rise on August 5. Another man with him was wounded with a gunshot to the shoulder. Ahmad Davis, 28, is suspected in the murder and is being searched for by authorities. Finally for Newark, one of its residents, Amar Singh Rana, 48, was shot multiple times in a robbery of his Irvington gas station over the weekend.

Also in smaller cities of New Jersey, David Rodriguez was shot and killed on August 4 in Paterson, and World War II veteran Robert Aldrich, 88, was beaten to death by a mentally unstable neighbor in his New Brunswick apartment August 4. The suspect in the latter case, Randy Collins, 33, was arrested; the Paterson murder remains unsolved.

In the outer-ring suburbs, a drunk hit and run took the life of Kristen King, a Somerset County woman killed on a rural road August 1. Also, the town of Pompton Lakes in Passaic County suffered its first murder in four years on Sunday, when a domestic dispute between a divorcing couple turned violent. Pratixabahen Patel, 35, was killed with multiple stab wounds in her Pompton Lakes condo by her husband, Jitendrab Patel, 51. He was discovered by the police in the act of stabbing his wife, but before they could arrest him, he slit his own throat with another blade. He is expected to survive his wound.

Only perhaps five minutes from my house on a road that I frequently drive, a carjacker killed an elderly woman in the early morning hours of August 8 in Palisades Park. Daniel Graham of Jersey City, 25, was being driven home by an SUV limo due to his drunkenness, and while stopped in Leonia, Graham assaulted the driver, and stole the vehicle. He continued driving south at high speeds, striking parked cars and poles before slamming into a bus stop where Sukyeol Lee, 81, was sitting waiting for a ride to church. Both Lee and Graham were killed in the violent accident.

The incidents that strike so close to me give me more pause; along with a domestic dispute homicide in Little Ferry last month and a gang stabbing in nearby Hackensack, these have been the closest murders to me, only several minutes away. Furthermore, a 17-year-old young man from my town who had attended my onetime high school in Ridgefield Park was shot in the head and killed in Paterson several weeks ago; the group of friends he was with abandoned the weapon and fled the scene. The details of his murder are sketchy, but his death was discussed in my town, and affects me personally on a deeper level than even the most tragic killing in Camden or Newark.


There have been two hundred homicides so far in 2009 – eight of these double homicides, and nine of these in self-defense. So far, the top cities for murders:
#1 Newark – 40
#2 Jersey City – 22
#3 Camden – 21
#4 Trenton – 13
#5 Irvington – 9
#6 (tie) East Orange – 5
#6 (tie) Elizabeth – 5
#6 (tie) Paterson – 5
#9 (tie) Hackensack – 3
#9 (tie) Mansfield – 3
#9 (tie) New Brunswick – 3

The top counties for murders:
Essex: 63
Camden: 25
Hudson: 25
Mercer: 14
Middlesex: 13
Passaic: 10
Union: 8
Bergen: 7
Burlington: 6
Monmouth: 6
Cumberland: 5
Atlantic: 4
Cape May: 3
Gloucester: 2
Ocean: 3
Somerset: 3
Warren: 3
Salem: 1
Sussex: 1

Hunterdon County and Morris County both have a homicide count of zero.

137 males and 53 females have been victims of homicide.

The age breakdown:
0-9: 6
10-19: 25
20-29: 75
30-39: 29
40-49: 23
50-59: 19
60-69: 3
70-79: 4
80-89: 6
90+: 1
Unknown: 6

The month breakdown:
January: 25
February: 22
March: 25
April: 20
May: 31
June: 29
July: 32


I’ll be updating this blog a lot more often now. In a week I’ll be returning to Washington DC, but still continuing to follow the news in New Jersey.

The link for the map is http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd

Another change for the blog - New Jersey Murder Map

As of July 1, I’ve stopped recording crimes in North Jersey. The project is effectively over, and while I was planning to keep it going for four months, there are some reasons that I just can’t do it anymore.

1. Time constraints. Working a real job twelve hours a day, five days a week, doesn’t give me a lot of time to write blog posts or record crime data; the rare moments I’m free I want to relax and spend with friends. I was planning to just start recording violent crimes – murder, shooting, robbery – as burglary and stolen vehicles were far too common and minor. However, now that June has ended, I’ve stopped the project entirely. It was just too much…but my murder map is still going on.

2. Unreliable statistics. The Clifton Journal provides in-depth coverage of all crime in the city, down to the minute thefts and burglaries. The same goes for other towns, like suburban Pequannock and Teaneck. They run well-kept websites that diligently track crime. Poor cities – Passaic, Newark, Paterson – have no such websites, and can’t afford to track the massive amount of crime that occurs within their borders. That’s why Newark has only one burglary listed, while Cedar Grove has around twelve. No one would debate Newark having more total burglaries – but the stats don’t show this.

3. Bias in journalism. When Justin Grisham, 13, was shot and killed in Irvington, his death didn’t appear in the newspapers for a week. Similarly, murders in Newark don’t make the front page, and sometimes aren’t even covered. However, murders in the suburbs get a massive amount of press. This is partially because Newark attempts to downplay its murder rate, and partially because of innate prejudice – in the poor and minority areas, it’s EXPECTED that they kill one another. It’s not news when a teenage boy is shot on a corner in Camden, it’s news when that doesn’t happen. Crimes in the suburbs are heavily covered, while crimes in the inner-cities, even murders, are treated as if the victims aren’t deserving of the same attention and respect. It’s offensive, but it’s reality in the Star-Ledger.

4. The murder map is more important. As I said, my murder map project is still running strong, and I think I’ll be continuing that indefinitely. Murders are relatively rare, very serious, and get a lot of publicity – all of which make them easier to record for data purposes. All of 2009 is up to date, and April-December 2008 as well. Expect posts in the future about them!


I’ll still update on crime occasionally, but the murder map is now my primary focus.


The week in homicide:

On July 1, Adrian Betanzos, 26, was found beaten to death in his home in New Brunswick, located on French Street. His roommate, a 20-year-old illegal immigrant named Reinaldo Fuentes, was arrested and charged in the murder. Also that day, an unidentified 34-year-old man was shot in the back of the head on a dead end on Weequahic Avenue, Newark. Many times, murder victims aren’t even identified by name in the paper, especially if they die in the slums.

On July 2, a police shooting took the life of a brazen burglar. Edwin Munoz, 22, a Hoboken resident, was burglarizing cars in Belleville along with his partner Japhet Lopez of Newark, 25. This type of crime is all too common, as my data shows, but the end of their story is an uncommon one.

The Belleville police caught them and gave chase, and a high-speed pursuit into Newark took place. The burglars pulled their car into a dead-end street in Newark, and panicking and trying to escape, struck a police officer. The officers began to fire, and Munoz was shot in the head. He died a short time later. Lopez attempted to flee, but was arrested.

On July 3, a 21-year-old man succumbed to the wounds he had received in a brutal stabbing in Hackensack the week earlier. Victor Garcia of Teaneck was standing outside the M&M factory when three gang members began arguing with him, stabbing him in the throat and stomach. Manuel Ramirez of Hackensack, 21, Gabriel Pujols of Union City, 21, and a 16-year-old Hackensack minor were arrested and charged with the murder. They all were associated with the gang DDP (Dominicans Don't Play). This murder, which took place on the corner of Lodi and Holt, was the closest in proximity to where I live. I don’t consider Hackensack an unsafe area, but it has gangs and crime, and care should always be taken wherever you walk in certain parts.

Yesterday, the body of a 2-year-old girl was found in a plastic bag on a riverbank in Clifton, and this morning, a 19-year-old man named Devohn Warren was shot multiple times outside an East Orange house. Homicides this week have been entirely in urban areas, and one was justified. I’ll keep updating the maps, so keep your eye out for updates!

New Jersey Murder Map 2009
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd&ct=docsearch&cd=2&cad=docsearch,cid:5026006392543339616

New Jersey Murder Map 2008
Part 1 –http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046d3b4de6cca1b960c&ct=docsearch&cd=3&cad=docsearch,cid:2867335661195458285
Part 2 – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046ddb7ddbc92058992&ct=docsearch&cd=4&cad=docsearch,cid:15976396532017962073

Homicide map New Jersey 2009

The youngest was a year old. The oldest was ninety-six. Some were killed by bitter ex-lovers or romantic rivals, others were killed by their spouses or friends. Others yet were gunned down while selling drugs on a street corner, hit in gang crossfire, run down by fleeing felons, or simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 2009 homicide map of New Jersey is fully researched and up to date, from the first homicide on January 1 2009, to the most recent one this morning. The map can be found at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd

This map is helpful in getting a general picture of crime and its victims in New Jersey, looking at the age, race, gender, and location of these murder victims. However, not all homicides are created the same, and not all homicides are murder.


The homicide are separated into 3 degrees for the purpose of this list.

1st degree homicide – Cold-blooded murder, premeditated or otherwise. This includes gang-related hits, disputes, domestic violence, targeted killings, and blind disregard for human life. There were two cases where a victim was killed by shooters firing into a large crowd – an 18-year-old boy killed in Lawnside, and a 13-year-old girl killed in Trenton. These are counted as 1st degree homicides because of the shooters’ intent to kill, and their total lack of respect for life. Likewise, the beating death of a 9-year-old boy in Camden is counted as 1st degree, because even if the killer’s intent was not death, his recklessness with human life still classifies him as a murderer.

There have been 106 victims of 1st degree murder in New Jersey so far in 2009. Included in that are four double homicides.


2nd degree homicide – Indirect murder, aggravated manslaughter, and malicious assaults that result in death. This includes hit-and-runs that kill their victims, murders in which the killers don’t directly come in contact with their victims such as the murder of a firefighter in Elizabeth, and a controversial case in which a husband who had been fighting with his wife shot her in the back with a pellet gun, piercing her lung and killing her. Not all vehicular homicides are counted, as some are legitimately accidental, but vehicular homicides where the perpetrator runs, or refuses to stop for someone on the road, are considered opportunistic murder, despite their lack of premeditation. A driver who runs down a pedestrian due to carelessness is not the same as a fleeing criminal in a police chase who kills a woman while escaping the cops.

There have been twenty-one victims of 2nd degree murder so far in 2009.


3rd degree homicide – Justifiable homicide, including police shootings that result in the death of the criminal. This is the smallest category of homicides, and arguably the least damaging to society. When a man with a knife rushes at police threatening to kill them, taking the attacker’s life in self-defense is no crime, but still the intentional taking of life, so it counts on the homicide map.

There have been five victims of 3rd degree homicide so far in 2009, though it’s debatable if they should be considered ‘victims’ of anyone but themselves.


Some statistics and other details on the demographics of the victims:

102 men were victims of homicide, compared to 30 women. (77.2% versus 22.8%)
The range of ages was heavily concentrated from around 19-33, with a mode at 27, and smaller peaks scattered around.

0-17: 9
18-35:82
36-65: 33
66+: 7
Unknown: 6

Or, in another way of looking at it:

0-9: 5
10-19: 15
20-29: 50
30-39: 20
40-49: 15
50-59: 12
60-69: 1
70-79: 3
80-89: 3
90+: 1
Unknown: 6

The unknown ages are either people who were not identified, or in one case a homeless man whose age could not be determined. Here are some statistics on the homicides by geography:

List of cities by most homicides –
Newark – 22
Jersey City – 17
Camden – 14
Trenton – 8
East Orange – 3
Elizabeth – 3
Irvington – 3
Paterson – 3

A large list of towns had two murders, including Hackensack, Vineland, Bridgeton, and Atlantic City, and another even huger list of towns had only a single murder this year, including Garfield, Neptune, Passaic, Roselle, and Orange.

List of counties by most homicides –
Essex: 35
Hudson: 20
Camden: 17
Middlesex: 11
Mercer: 8
Passaic: 6
Monmouth: 5
Burlington: 5
Union: 5
Bergen: 4
Cumberland: 4
Cape May: 3
Atlantic: 2
Gloucester: 2
Ocean: 2
Somerset: 2
Warren: 2
Sussex: 1
Hunterdon: 0
Morris: 0
Salem: 0

As expected, the counties of Essex, Hudson, and Camden have the highest murder rates due to the cities Newark, Jersey City and Camden.

This blog will continue to cover North Jersey crime, but also murders around the entire state. Today, an unidentified woman was killed in Newark after her car was struck by three fleeing burglars, at the intersection of Foster and Dayton. The criminals, who were being chased by police after a burglary in Elizabeth, ran into Weequahic Park and are currently being hunted. This homicide is #23 for Newark, #35 for Essex County, and #132 for the state as a whole.

The blog will also cover certain publicized murders, or ones that serve as an example of typical crime, or ones that are just really interesting. Check back for more updates soon.