10 People Hit by Gunfire Outside Trenton, N.J., Bar

TRENTON, New Jersey — New Jersey’s capital once boasted of its outsize industrial prowess with the phrase “Trenton Makes, the World Takes,” but that activity has largely dried up, and what Trenton seems to make lately is headlines for violent crime.

Last year, Mayor W. Reed Gusciora took office mere weeks after a shooting in June in which 22 people were injured after gunmen opened fire during an arts festival.

He vowed to increase police patrols at large events and conducted an extensive search for a new director of the police department but the violence has continued.

It erupted again early Saturday with a drive-by shooting in front of a bar that left 10 people hospitalized, city officials said.

The shooting followed four homicides in the past month, including the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old grandson of a mayoral aide, police officials said.

Early on Saturday morning, a crowd in front of the bar, Ramoneros Liquor and Bar on Brunswick Avenue, was enjoying a seasonable beginning to Memorial Day weekend when a dark car pulled up.

At least two gunmen fired more than 30 times into the crowd, sending some people running while others dived behind parked cars for cover until the car sped away.

The police said they were exploring the possibility the gunmen may have been motivated by road rage because witnesses reported that the vehicle’s driver kept honking in heavy traffic just before the shooting.

But Gusciora said the shooting might have also stemmed from feuding neighborhood gangs, a continuing source of violence in Trenton, which has a population of 80,000.

“We’re not saying this was road rage. We’re not saying it was retaliation because the truth of the matter is we just don’t know at this point,” Sheilah Coley, who has been commanding the city’s police force for less than a month, said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

The victims included five men and five women between the ages of 23 and 36. Eight of them remained hospitalized Saturday evening.

Investigators have not yet identified the gunmen, but they may have a lead on their vehicle and were still analyzing video footage from the scene for that purpose, said Coley, a black woman whose appointment offered hope of diversifying a historically white department policing a mostly black and Hispanic population.

Gusciora blamed lax federal gun laws for the violent outbursts.

“New Jersey has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but guns are easily accessible in some nearby states,” he said. “This is why we need federal solutions to the gun violence epidemic.”

He also said that bars have become “an easy target” for people intent on settling scores.

“We have to address the bar scene in these neighborhoods,” he said. Violent crime in Trenton has declined over the past two years because of increased patrols and community policing, as well as initiatives addressing poverty, unemployment and other societal contributors to the ongoing street violence, Gusciora said.

“We’re making progress against violent crime,” he said, adding that he had “full confidence” in Coley as his police director and her initiatives of assigning more road and foot patrols.

The mayor said that rival neighborhood groups were responsible for much of the violence.

“We don’t really have traditional gangs,” he said. “We have neighborhoods that go against other neighborhoods, and it’s that kind of conflict that arises often in the city, and we expect it’s going to continue, especially in the summer months.”

Gusciora said the city was working to train its youth for modern economic opportunities and opening a new high school this year to help prepare students for the changing economy.

Asked about the shooting during a presidential campaign stop in Iowa on Saturday, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., cited the availability of illegal guns and the problem that violent crime could pose to economic progress in Trenton.

“I think Trenton has so much of what it needs to thrive, but violence is always going to push away investment,” he said. “And that’s why to get the kind of support and help they need, to drive down the rates of violence, is critical.”

Trenton city Councilman Jerell Blakeley said, “Unfortunately, gun violence is all too common on the streets of Trenton.” He called for “all levels of government in Trenton to work together to develop a comprehensive plan to address this scourge.”

Gusciora was also adamant about addressing the violence.

“Trenton cannot become a tale of two cities: one that is moving toward progress in economic development and improvements in education while at the same time an unsafe environment for young people due to gun violence,” he said.