Utilizing Google Maps now; and a lot of shootings in North Jersey

After seeing NJ.com’s homicide map for Hudson County in 2008, I created a similar Google map with the North Jersey homicides for 2009: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100430255326859206461.00046c0c8bf50984defdd They’re color-coded for what city they occurred in, and includes the names and ages of deceased, where they’re known. The total is 17 so far, one being a police shooting, a justifiable homicide in self-defense. After these last few days of violence, I’m surprised there haven’t been more murders.

There were a LOT of shootings these last few days. On June 9, a single shot was fired near Ocean Avenue and Wegman Parkway in Jersey City. A man who was walking by was hit in the stomach, but didn’t realize that he had been shot until he got to his apartment and noticed the blood. The victim was uncooperative with the police, and drove himself to the hospital.

Two days later, there was a report of shots fired on Temple Street in Paterson. Officers on the scene pulled over a suspicious vehicle, and approached it with guns drawn. The occupants burst out of the Hummer and began to run, dropping weapons in the process. The driver was in possession of a Tec-9 automatic machine pistol, with forty bullets and one in the chamber. Another of the car’s occupants had a .357 magnum revolver, both weapons illegal. A digital scale found in the car suggests that they were involved in the drug trade.

Saddest of all, today a shooting in Newark left a 12-year-old boy in critical condition. By the Stratford Aspen Apartment Complex, where a 19-year-old boy was murdered two weeks ago, a man in a silver SUV pulled up and began to argue with a 23-year-old man standing in a group of people. The driver pulled out a handgun and fired eight shots, one striking his target in the back, but stray bullets hitting a 12-year-old who was standing nearby in the back, arm, and stomach. While the shooter’s target was in stable condition, the young man who took the most bullets is in critical care.

Crime tends to peak on the weekends, but there’s one piece of good news. A Paterson man responsible for at least fifteen car burglaries in Rutherford has been arrested, and cooperative with police. While not on the same level as shootings and murder, at least it’s a sign of progress in the neverending fight against crime.