With murders mounting, Trenton puts more cops in criminal hotspots

With homicides a nearly weekly occurrence in Trenton, and two city teengers the latest victims Sunday, Trenton’s mayor and police director say they will deploy additional officers to areas that have seen surges in violence.

Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora said in a statement he met with his police director, Sheilah Coley, and Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri and came up with this plan: more cops on the streets.

Officers from the prosecutor’s office and the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department will immediately deploy additional law enforcement officers throughout the city, and Onofri and Coley asked the New Jersey State Police to also add more officers to the cause. The State Police already has a complement of officers patrolling the city.

And, Coley will request that the Mercer County Police Academy add an additional class later this year to double the number of new officers.

“Every homicide is one too many,” Gusciora said in the statement. He also compared Trenton to other cities - which he has done before this year - saying, “While Trenton is just one of several cities struggling with violent crime as COVID-19 erodes economic opportunity across the country, we’re not content to be just another statistic. Today’s plan will help put more law enforcement officers where they are needed the most.”

Recently, online commenters on Facebook group Trenton Orbit, have been critical of Gusciora and Coley for not having a plan to stop the violence.

The city has 24 homicides this year, 22 of them by guns, following 15 total homicides in 2019 and 16 in 2018.

After starting the year with two homicides in two months, Trenton exploded with street violence in March, April and May, when stay-at-home orders were in place to battle the spread of the coronavirus. Three people were killed on one night in early April, and five people were slain over seven days in May.

The violence led Gusciora to invoke a city-wide curfew earlier this year to keep people inside, to help crime and the coronavirus.

Also, several Trenton police officers say privately the violence can partly be traced to the department pivoting from proactive policing to reactive policing this year under Coley.

One officer, Sgt. Anthony Manzo, put his frustrations on Facebook last month, saying, “Tired of the senseless homicides in our cities. It’s not about gun control, violent offenders are lawless...It’s about taking guns and violent offenders off the street. (Reactive policing) does not stop gun violence.”

Anyone with information on Sunday’s shooting - which took the lives of William Irrizarry and Julius Vargas, both 18 - can call the Mercer County Homicide Task Force at 609-989-6406. Information can also be emailed at mchtftips@mercercounty.org.

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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.

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