UPDATED: 8:50 p.m., Sunday:
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Authorities said the shooting was related to “several neighborhood gangs having a dispute.”
Tahaji Wells, 33, was the man shot and killed by officers during the shooting. He reportedly had a handgun with an illegal extended magazine.
Wells had a history with police and pleaded guilty in 2004 to aggravated manslaughter, officials said.
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Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said two other suspects were in hospital but have not yet been charged with any crimes. There is at least one other suspect who was not hurt.
Shortly before the shots rang out, Trenton police informed organizers to shut down the event after unrest began due to troublemakers that were hanging around and would not leave, Onofri said.
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The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is investigating officers who opened fire during the shooting.
UPDATED: 1:38 p.m., Sunday:
Authorities have updated the number of injured from 20 to 22.
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Original Story:
An all-day and all-night arts festival in Trenton was rocked by violence early Sunday morning.
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At the Art All Night festival in New Jersey’s capital city, one pers0n was killed and 20 people were injured – 17 of them from gunfire – after shots rang out around 3 a.m. inside the former Roebling Wire Works building on South Clinton Avenue. A 13-year-old boy has been listed as being in critically injured, authorities said.
Officials stated at a news conference that the person killed, a 33-year-old man, may have been one of the suspects.
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Another man was taken into custody at the scene, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri told reporters.
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Police on the scene exchanged gunfire with at least one person during the incident, according to reports.
Video posted on social media shows one person bleeding badly on the ground outside the event and other people with injuries. The videos also capture the utter chaos that police were arriving to at the scene.
Witnesses told the Trentonian that just before the shooting there were large groups of people massing outside the festival and one person reportedly saw a fight.
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“About 10 shots went off and people started running,” witness Ed Forchion, a well-know New Jersey marijuana activist, said in a video posted by Peterson’s Breaking News of Trenton.
“Everybody ran toward the door,” Trenton resident Franco Roberts told the Trentonian. “And the people fighting got mixed with the crowd that was running and they went out the door shooting.”
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The popular Art All Night festival marked its 12th year this week and is a big draw to the city. NJ.com reported about 1,000 people were at the event, many looking at works from local artists when the shooting began.
“We’re still processing much of this and we don’t have many answers at this time but please know that our staff, our volunteers, our artists and musicians all seem to be healthy and accounted for. Our sincere, heartfelt sympathies are with those who were injured,” a statement from Art All Night said in-part.
Ironically, volunteers from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group devoted to pushing lawmakers to pass “common-sense gun reforms,” had a table manned at Art All Night.
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“Imagine a world free on gun violence,” a sign at their table read.
Investigators from a number of agencies were at the crime scene as of 9 a.m. Sunday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said their agents were assisting.
