Mayor Gusciora’s Statement Regarding Early Sunday Morning Shooting on Locust Street
Early this morning, our city experienced a devastating act of gun violence in the Wilbur Section of East Trenton.
At approximately 12:25 a.m., Trenton Police responded to the area of 194 Locust Street following reports of multiple shots fired. According to the information confirmed by law enforcement, eleven people were struck by gunfire. Two people have died, and nine others were transported for medical treatment.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Task Force is now leading the investigation, and the City will fully support that investigation.
I also want to thank the law-enforcement agencies that provided mutual aid and assistance to Trenton during an extraordinarily difficult and rapidly developing situation. The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Mercer County Sheriff’s Office, New Jersey State Police, and our partners in Ewing, Lawrence, and Hamilton responded to assist our officers and help secure the area. We are grateful for their immediate response, professionalism and continued partnership. Incidents of this magnitude demand coordination across jurisdictions, and I appreciate every officer, investigator, first responder and public-safety professional who answered that call.
My heart goes out to the families of the two people whose lives were taken, to everyone who was wounded, and to the residents of the Wilbur Section who awoke this morning to another painful reminder of the consequences of gun violence.
We are still learning about the people affected by this tragedy. One of the things that makes an incident like this particularly painful is that people’s lives and their stories are often far more complicated than a police report can capture. We understand that one of the individuals who lost his life had been working to turn his life around after returning home from incarceration and had recently been recognized for his commitment to reentry and positive change.
Until his identity is formally released by law enforcement, I will not identify him. But his story is an important reminder of why we do this work: people can change, people deserve the opportunity to rebuild their lives, and it is especially heartbreaking when a life moving in a different direction is cut short by violence.
We also need to be candid about what occurred on Locust Street.
This was a large, unauthorized adult gathering involving hundreds of people on a residential street. An estimated 200 or more individuals were present. A gathering of that magnitude creates serious public-safety concerns for the people attending it, the surrounding neighborhood, and the police officers and first responders who must respond when something goes wrong.
The City of Trenton will be taking additional proactive measures to prevent unauthorized gatherings of this size from taking over residential streets. We are examining strategies being used in other cities, including earlier identification of large gatherings, enhanced coordination and deployment of law-enforcement resources, enforcement of existing ordinances and laws, and intervention before crowds grow to a point where they become dangerous or unmanageable.
This is not about criminalizing people for gathering together. It is about recognizing the difference between a gathering and hundreds of people occupying a residential street without authorization, particularly when firearms and violence become part of that environment.
Our response will not be limited to law enforcement.
Beginning immediately, we will also engage our street teams and community partners in the Wilbur Section. They will be talking directly with residents, families and people in the neighborhood—not simply responding to what happened, but listening, gathering information, helping connect residents with resources, and working to prevent retaliation or additional violence.
And to anyone who was on Locust Street last night: with hundreds of people present, somebody saw what happened. There are almost certainly photographs, videos, text messages, and social-media posts that can help investigators determine who fired these weapons.
Two people are dead. Nine others were shot.
If you know something, say something. If you have video, preserve it. If you saw who had a weapon or who fired, provide that information to investigators. Protecting someone responsible for taking a life only puts another family and another neighborhood at risk.
Finally, I want to speak directly to the residents of the Wilbur Section and East Trenton. You should not have to accept this as normal. Your block should not become an event venue for hundreds of people without notice or authorization. You should not have to wake up to gunfire, crime-scene tape, and homicide investigators outside your home.
We will support the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office as it works to identify and prosecute those responsible. At the same time, we are going to work with this neighborhood and take proactive steps to make it far more difficult for an unauthorized gathering of this magnitude to develop again.
Trenton is a resilient city. But resilience cannot mean simply enduring tragedy after tragedy. It must mean learning from what happened, changing what we can change, and doing everything within our power to prevent the next one.
