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Nineteen-year-old Natasha Aerial, who was the only survivor from Saturday night's shootings in a Newark schoolyard, managed to speak to police yesterday. While her brother and two friends died from being shot in the head, execution-style, Aerial survived a gunshot to the head. She is heavily sedated and under police guard. Still, Newark Police Director (and former NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Operations) Garry McCarthy said, "We're getting the story piecemeal from her. Based upon witness testimony, we believe it was a robbery."
It's believed that when Natasha Aerial, Terrance Aerial, Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey went to the Mount Vernon School's yard to hang out late Saturday night, there were already two other men present. When a few more men entered the schoolyard, the four friends text messaged each other that they needed to stay calm and leave, but they never got the chance. McCarthy indicated that one or some of the victims had defensive wounds: "There may have been some resistance that escalated the robbery."
There was a small demonstration outside Newark's City Hall yesterday, with people demanding Mayor Cory Booker's resignation. Booker appeared at a press conference, saying, "This is a time all Newarkers must pull together and unite around their common challenges." Harvey's father also appeared; James Harvey said, "I don't blame Mayor Booker. I blame the parents of America. If you raised your kids better, this would not be happening...Calling for Mayor Booker's resignation, this doesn't start with him." The city of Newark is now offering $52,000 for information about the shootings.
Still, there are many divided feelings about Booker's ability to reduce crime and simply lead. Though crime is going down, this year's murder count is 60, just three fewer than last year at this time - and last year had the most murders in many years. And the NY Times mentions a "particularly bruising series of events" for Booker, including an incident where 1,000 youths were not paid immediately for participating in a Newark summer jobs program and one where he seemed to disparage a recently deceased community advocate in a tribute speech.
NJ Governor Jon Corzine promised state help to assist in the investigation and prosecution. He said, "It's an issue that is much larger than Newark... We have a problem where guns are shipped across state lines, we have poor border control with regard to the importation of drugs and they end up fueling violence on the local street. And so on the national level, on the state level, on the local level, we are all going to have to work together."
Top photograph of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, with James Harvey, and lower photograph of investigators at the Mount Vernon School yard where the shooting took place by Mel Evans/AP
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The story is very hard to read because of the grammatical errors. Click the NYT link for a better version.
Mr. Harvey is right. He raised his son well. I'm sorry for his loss...
Is this where the community steps in and trys to help the police find these murderers?
Oh wait - Don't be a snitch - it's all the rage. Silly me.
Where's Rev Al? Oh wait- it's not a white vs black/black vs white issue - no need for him to make useful, constructuve comments either.
Hope Booker gets something done before they oust him. Another thing- I could barely read that article, so many terrifying errors!
3: Nobody here is talking about the whole stop snitching thing. Jeez.
This whole situation is so horrible. Why do the kids with intact families that actually care always fall victim to this shit. I mean, I don't wish for anyone to die, but I damn well wish that the friggen dealers and the bad guys would keep it to themselves.
So sad.
:(
-Ph
He's damned right -- it IS the parents who are at fault. They provide zero supervision and don't care that their kids are terrorizing the neighborhood.
It's sad to see Booker blamed for this.
Why are people "hanging out" at a schoolyard late Saturday night? Isn't that trespassing? Is there no police prowl car cruising this neighborhood? If you see several shady people there already, would that not be a good time to NOT GO INTO THE FUCKING SCHOOLYARD IN THE FIRST PLACE??!!
They didn't realize the two men there were shady until they were already there.
You've never gone into a school yard after hours to have a quiet chat or swing on a swing lost in your own thoughts?
WTF!!!! "...more men entered the schoolyard, the four friends text messaged each other that they needed to stay calm and leave, but they never got the chance." Perhaps if they weren't so busy texting back and forth (showing off their fancy consumer electronics) they would have had time to RUN!! Don't text, talk, then RUN!!! Haven't these kids seen The Warriors? Run Forrest, run!
#9, No I don't make a habbit of trespassing on city property in the wee, small, hours. This is not a case of an open community playground. This is a fenced-in yard surrounding a school. There is no reason for people to be there late Saturday night.
So, guest, you're blaming the kids for being shot? Is that what your argument comes down to?
I got railed on a while ago for even implying something like that in regards to the Virginia shootings. It took me a minute to realize that the people railing on me were right. It's not the fault of four h.s. kids hanging out in their schoolyard, which happens all across America...it's the fault of the sick sad freaks who shot them in the first place.
The history of corruption and violence in Newark goes back decades. The city had corrupt mayors, mobbed up mayors, incompetent mayors, and of course combinations of the three - the latest manifestation of which can be seen in Sharpe James. The police force also has had a history of corruption and brutality as well which of course has led to a great deal of mistrust between the department and the citizens.
Another piece of the puzzle is the fallout from the riots 40 years ago which killed off a lot of minority owned businesses and drove many white businesses away. A similar situation can be found in Camden, which was so bad the state had to take over the city and wound up having state troopers patrol the streets.
Plus there is the idiotic "stop snitching" nonsense that the violent hip hop "culture" seems to have embraced. This crap does as much damage to these communities that could be cleaned up of thugs. The so called culture embraces guns, which of course tend to come from white southern gun dealers. It almost seems as if the Confederacy is trying to get the last laugh with a bit of ex post facto genocide. Dollars to donuts says the guns involved came from Virginia, Georgia or some other hotbed of gun nuts.
There are no easy fixes to Newark and Corey Booker does seem like the most competent mayor the city has had probably in the past hundred years, but it is like pissing on a five alarm fire, something which is futile.
No, I am not blaming the kids for getting attacked. What I am pointing out is that those kids, and the assailants, were in a place where they were not supposed to be and frankly have no legitimate reason to be in the first place. You say "...four h.s. kids hanging out in their schoolyard, which happens all across America..." I would posit that it does not happen all across the nation in the wee, small, hours of a Saturday night. The blame lies squarely upon the shoulders of those that made a decision to harm their fellow humans, that fact is not disputable. However, the circumstances that gave rise to this tragedy could have been obviated by the changing of variables, some of which are: either the attackers or victims or both not breaking the law by trespassing there in the first place, and the victims odd (to me) decision to text message one another (thereby showing the attackers that they were in possesion of consumer electronics) rather than just get up and run. While I do feel that the attackers should be ground up into animal feed for this sort of behavior, it is always good to reflect that it is incumbent on the individual to be aware of their surroundings and cultivate a heightened sense of situational awareness. That said, I also wanted to know if this neighborhood had any regular police patrols. My neighborhood does, and if the police see anyone hanging around city property (be it schoolyard, park or city hall) late on a Saturday night they will go over to check them out. If Newark is such a crime-ridden place then I would think that an ill-lit, fenced in schoolyard is not a place that the citizens would want young people hanging out late at night.
it is really sad that we always have to try and find a way the victim was at fault- They should be able to sit in a park at any hour of the night without getting shot. Anyone should.
We do it (lay blame) so we can feel like it won't happen to us and ours.
It isn't until your kid or friend wind up dead you don't realize how stupid you sound when you say something like "what were they doing in ______ anyway?".
but the sad truth is you have to just stay in a locked room with people you trust in an area that shitty. and even then you may get shot by someone.
sad state of affairs.
I was wondering when the sympathy would end and the victims would start to be blamed.
It came on quicker than I thought.
-Ph
Often people in their early 20s, teenagers too, want to go out at night but they can't get into bars, so they hang out at the park.
I did this too! ...and a lot of school yards aren't locked and are open to the public.
14, these were young adults, not children having a good times amongst each other before 12AM. One of the mothers said they left the house at 10:30 to go to the store. So this incident happened between 10:30 and 12.
Even if it had been 3am. They are not ones to be blamed! They didn't shoot themselves.
I can't even understand how you could possibly even try to place the blame on them.
Schoolyards are open areas. Some have gates around them, but you'll rarely find the gates closed or locked. They weren't there illegally.
And even if they were, it would NOT be their faults.
Ad to the person who mentioned "fancy text messaging," you don't know the situation. They may not have been able to warn each other. Also, bullets can hit someome running, so your point is useless.
Again, I'm not blaming the victims. Just wondering where were the police patrols that should have been chasing away all the trespassers. Also, not blame just a question, I'm old and don't text message so perhaps some of you youngsters could enlighten me. Would it not be faster to just say to your friends "Hey, those cats look like trouble, let's leave." rather than typeing away at the keyboard?
#14 is right & everyone who complains that i'm blaming the victims should let me know the next time they ride the subway in the wee hours with their cash in their hand instead of in their pocket. or send us some pictures of you hanging out in a schoolyard in the bronx this saturday night. i'd like to know how that turns out.
it's sad that these kids were shot but if u live in such a dangerous city perhaps you should stay home & play WII instead of hanging out where the criminals are.
Reading is fundamental people. Two of the thugs were at the playground when the victims arrived. They seemed harmless, so the victims stayed. When more guys joined the other guys, then they felt that they needed to get out of there.
If I had been in that situation, I probably would've sent a text message as well. If you yell "hey, they look suspicious, let's get out of here," then the attackers would know when you're making your move. Text messages are discreet, for the most part.
And 20, please save your stupid opinions. The playground was in a middle class neighborhood where few crimes occur. Again reading is fundamental folks.
I can't read number 14 until he signs in.
if you're a guest and writing a book, no one will read it.
"The playground was in a middle class neighborhood where few crimes occur. " No such places exist in Newark.
#23- Read the Times article which does state that the crime occurred in a middle class low crime neighborhood. Instead of blaming these three book smart kid, who could have used some more street smarts, we should wish their familes well and pray that the police finds whoever committed this heinous execution.
here's an idea.
the israeli's do this frequently. They clear the civilians from a specific area and then use hell-fire missles to destroy the enemy. since the enemy in newark "claims to have nothing" then I say we clear the streets of the innocent, and raze newark!
We need to lock rapists, pedophiles, murderers, and violent offendes in a cage for life, this parole crap is bullshit!
The men in this attack can be punished with very little cost to the tax payers: 15¢ for a bullet x the amount of killers = justice under $5.00—cuz that's about all they're worth...
I would posit that it does not happen all across the nation in the wee, small, hours of a Saturday night
Actually, I think you'd be surprised.
#21 maybe you should stop posting your justification for asinine behavior about things that you know nothing about. from your own post:
"Two of the thugs were at the playground when the victims arrived."
& from #14's excellent comment:
"it is always good to reflect that it is incumbent on the individual to be aware of their surroundings and cultivate a heightened sense of situational awareness."
in other words, don't make stupid decisions, which is unfortunately what those kids did that night. once again, i invite you to hang out saturday night in the bronx, go ahead pick 1 of the nice neighborhoods up there, as #23 will correctly point out, it's still the bronx. moron.
27, When did hanging out with friends on a weekend become asinine behaviour?
I live in Philadelphia where there have been 251 murderers this year alone, so you can save the Bronx tale crap.
I still say blaming these kids for getting shot is more asinine behavior than anything that the guest from Philadelphia said.
Sure, it wasn't street smart, but as someone else pointed out, it's a middle class neighborhood relatively safe by Newark standards. Blaming them for being dead is heartless and really uncalled for.
its crazy that ppl cant even chill with out something happening to them....but why dont they have the police cams in newark like they do in bmore???
It's sad to say today's society is falling down!! It's a sad world. People need to step in and start snitching to protect our family!! Booker has amde this city a hell hold from housing to the streets. We need to prey that god have mercy on the city of Newark.
The protesters outside city hall are almost definitely shills of the former mayor and HNIC Sharpe James, who's likely headed to jail soon due to corruption charges. The New York Times is running a good series of articles on Cory Booker administration, and documented these corrupt Sharpe James flunkies laid off when Booker became Mayor who are attempting to force a recall vote so they can get back on the city's payroll (including Amiri Baraka's son, who was booked off the City Council).
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and both campaigned for Sharpe James against Cory Booker in 2002 (check out the great documentary "Street Fight" on that election campaign, during which James called Booker "a faggot white boy" and "a Republican who took money from the KKK") so neither of them will lift a finger to help Newark out anytime soon.