By James Queally and David Giambusso/The Star-Ledger
NEWARK — The bullet that killed Dejaa Edwards wasn't meant for her.
The 24-year-old Jersey City native was standing in a playground in Newark’s South Ward with several other friends Tuesday night, prosecutors and relatives said, when at least two gunmen opened fire on someone else.
They missed, police said, leaving Edwards’ loved ones to only stare Wednesday at pictures of the smiling young woman in the bedroom where she used to sleep and mourn that she won’t be coming home again.
“Why did it have to be her?” asked Edwards’ stepmother, Judy Clarke. “Your kids are supposed to bury you. You’re not supposed to bury your children.”
Edwards’ death was the ninth in as many days in the state’s largest city, the latest in a string of shootings and stabbings that has claimed the lives of drug dealers, gangbangers and innocent bystanders alike, dampening Newark’s hopes of seeing its first annual decrease in homicides since 2008.
UPDATE: 14-year-old Newark boy killed had 30 bricks of heroin and loaded gun in his bedroom
Late Wednesday, authorities were investigating a 10th killing.
Police Director Samuel DeMaio said a 14-year-old boy was shot to death at about 9 p.m. in the courtyard of the Riverview Terrace housing complex. The victim, who DeMaio said lived at the housing project, was not immediately identified. DeMaio said he did not have any information on a motive or suspect.
He said, however, that none of the 10 killings is linked, but the shootings weren't random.
Meanwhile, as Edwards’ family began to make funeral arrangements on Wednesday, the bloodshed became part of a larger political narrative as Mayor Cory Booker tries to tout his record in Newark amid a contentious battle for a U.S. Senate seat.
While Booker announced a new police initiative in response to the wave of killings, his Republican opponent, Steve Lonegan, quickly took aim at the mayor for campaigning while his city’s body count continued to rise.
It started Aug. 26, when 20-year-old Kiamesha Minton was gunned down sitting in a parked car, caught in the middle of a domestic dispute, prosecutors said. Two men were shot and killed the next day, and two brothers suffered the same fate Aug. 30 in a triple shooting on Vassar Avenue.
The violence continued Saturday, when a man was shot and killed outside the defunct Queen of Angels Church on Irvine Turner Boulevard. Less than an hour later, a woman was stabbed to death during another domestic dispute.
None of the incidents are connected, according to police, who announced an arrest in one of the slayings yesterday. Zakia Merrill, 22, of Newark, was charged with murder and weapons offenses in connection with the Saturday afternoon stabbing of 21-year-old Ebony Martin on Parkhurst Street.
On Sunday evening, 20-year-old Jesus Torres was delivering a pizza in the city's West Ward when he was shot, and he later died after his car crashed into a building.
Dejaa Edwards died Tuesday night.
Details of Wednesday night’s killing at Riverview Terrace were not immediately available.
The city’s death toll was 49 on Aug. 25, the day before the surge began, down from 56 killings by that date in 2012. Booker yesterday said he will extend summer patrol initiatives and offer more police overtime to increase presence in some of the city’s most dangerous corners.
"We can either let this shake us into inaction or motivate us to act and, something that we're seeing already, some of the biggest gains we've gotten this year have come about because of the engagement and activity of our citizens," Booker said after a campaign event in Hackensack.
DeMaio said late Wednesday the new initiatives will focus on suspects who could be involved in drug activity, because at least half of the homicides that have occurred last week have involved people in the drug trade.
"They're not happening at the same location, but the majority of them are in the 5th Precinct (which largely comprises the South Ward), and that's what we're gonna focus on," he said.
James Allen, a Booker spokesman, said the mayor was at the scene of Wednesday night's killing and is working closely with DeMaio on city’s overall policing strategy.
Earlier in the day, Lonegan chided Booker for campaigning for the Senate while the crime wave continued in his city.
"This guy should not be stepping foot out of Newark," Lonegan said. "He's got people getting shot every day … he's got a major crisis in Newark."
FIVE SHOTS
Edwards was shot about 10 p.m. Tuesday when at least five shots rang out near a Hawthorne Avenue playground, prosecutors and relatives said. She was struck in the chest and died a short time later, according to relatives. A 30-year-old man also suffered a bullet wound, but he is expected to survive, police said.
"It does not appear that she was the intended target," said Thomas Fennelly, Essex County’s chief assistant prosecutor.
The attack touched off a frantic scene, said Lewis Collier, pastor at the Macedonia Pentecostal Church, who was leaving his church’s evening service when he heard gunshots. As he drove away, one of Edwards’ friends jumped out from behind a parked car and banged on his window, screaming as loud as she could.
"Let me in, I think my girlfriend just got shot!" she yelled, according to Collier.
Collier called police, and returned to the crime scene minutes later. Collier said the girl ran toward Edwards’ body, and broke down as the dead woman’s hand went limp.
Edwards was born in Jersey City, and lived in Virginia for a time before returning to Newark to try and fulfill her dream of becoming a beautician, relatives said. She had worked in the dietary department at Clara Maas Hospital in Belleville for at least five years, and also worked as a part-time model. A godmother to several of her friends’ children, Edwards’ stepmother used to nudge her about starting a family.
"I was hoping she would give us a granddaughter," Clarke said.
POLITICAL SITUATION
The spate of homicides plays large on Newark’s political stage as candidates seeking to replace Booker grapple with Newark’s stubborn crime problem.
South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka, a mayoral candidate, said the city’s police force cannot battle the violence alone and called for city stakeholders from Rutgers, NJIT, University Hospital, the State Police and the Essex County Sheriff's Department to help form a long-term plan to mitigate city crime.
“We need all those people to come to the table and create a long-term strategy to reduce crime in this city,” he said. “Until we do that we’re just going to be chasing our tail year after year after year.”
Mayoral candidate and former state Assistant Attorney General Shavar Jeffries said he would have a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal guns in Newark. He said the psychological terror that plagues city neighborhoods is tearing Newark apart.
“I remember what it was like at 10-years-old to be told by a police officer that my mother had been shot and killed,” Jeffries said. “It has an incalculable psychological effect on the families … it creates fear and sense of terror.”
Amid the plans and recriminations, Crystal Edwards rocked back and forth on her daughter’s bed on Wednesday, staring at a picture her daughter.She recalled Dejaa’s clumsiness, saying she often tackled the front steps of their South Ward home in thunderous stomps, tripping on her way to the landing.
It's a sound she said she wishes she could hear again.
Star-Ledger staff writer Jessica Calefati contributed to this report.
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