2 charged with attempted murder in Trenton shootings, violence continues after bloody weekend

TRENTON – Two men were charged with attempted murder after they were involved separate shootings last month that injured three people, police said.

The arrests come as the capital city contends with another round of gunplay that killed three people and injured a former reputed Bloods gangster.

Since Saturday, police responded to at least a half-dozen instances of gunplay in which someone was injured or shell casings were discovered.

There have been at least 20 calls for shots fired, many of which officers did not find bullet casings at the scenes, police sources said.

Mayor Reed Gusciora has repeatedly pointed to the violence as the reason he put the city under a tight curfew over the last few weeks, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He has since eased the curfew to 9 p.m., and said he wouldn’t consider rolling back that decision in light of a second wave of violence that swept the city.

“At some point, even curfews are unworkable,” he told The Trentonian. “As the weather gets warmer, people want to get out. You have to strike the balance between public safety and the right of citizens to go on or about their legal business.”

Officials said this week they’d renew focus on some of the city’s troubled crime hotpsots following the murder of 38-year-old Robert Smith, of Trenton.

He was one of three people gunned down in a 33-hour span, including a cousin-on-cousin murder on Oakland Street.

Meanwhile, cops closed in on suspects allegedly involved in two shootings last month.

Arrested and charged with attempted murder were Naire Burnett, 29, and Anthony Brown, 25, for shootings March 2 and March 12, respectively.

Authorities tracked down Brown in Atlanta, Georgia and extradited him back to New jersey on Monday, Trenton Police spokesman Lt. Jason Kmiec said.

Burnett alleged shot up a house on the 100 block of Cleveland Avenue during a dispute with a 33-year-old man around 12:14 a.m. March 2.

The victim was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the back.

The Shooting Response Team’s investigation led to Burnett, who allegedly retrieved a gun from his car, then shot up the house.

Burnett was also hit with charges of aggravated assault, weapons offenses and child endangerment because a 1-year-old girl was in the residence at the time of the shooting.

Brown was identified as the gunman involved in the March 12 that injured two people near Academy and North Montgomery streets.

He is accused of blasting two 19-year-old men, one in the chest and another in the buttocks.

Detectives reviewed surveillance that helped them identify Brown as the shooter, He was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals in Atlanta.

Brown also faces charges of aggravated assault and weapons offenses.

Police are also investigating a shooting that happened Monday, on the 500 block of Grand Street, one of at least six since Saturday.

A group of people, including the accused shooter, were gathered outside a home around 6:40 p.m. when violence erupted.

A man shot in the thigh was taken to the hospital and treated for a broken femur.

Cops say the alleged gunman fired three rounds at the victim. No one else was injured.

The suspect, described as a light-skinned man, was still on the lam.

In the past couple days, cops also responded to gunfire on the 800 block of Park Avenue, on the 600 block of West State Street, on the first block of Murray Street, and on the 100 block of Oakland Street.

No victims were reported in any of those shootings, Kmiec said.

Police expected a wave of retaliatory violence after Saturday’s triple shooting that killed Smith and injured ex-Bloods leader Earlie Harrell, aka the Almighty Blood Messiah.

Featured on a 2009 segment of the History Channel’s “Gangland,” Harrell was a big-timer in the Money, Sex, Murder set of the notorious street gang.

He still is revered among many street hustlers, so police expected tempers to flare after he and a 19-year were shot during a cookout before midnight Saturday on Daymond Street.

Then on Monday, 18-year-old Tayvion Jones was found shot to death in his kitchen on the first block of Oakland Street.

Police quickly arrested and charged the murder victim’s cousin, Horace Jones, 34, of Ewing, with the killing.

The killing appeared unrelated to Saturday’s slaying as the men were allegedly feuding over women, police sources said.

A third murder happened more than five hours later, when Antwuan Bowens, 44, was shot to death around 9 a.m. Monday on Daymond Street, in the same part of the city where Smith was killed.

Bowens’ murder remains unsolved.