Newark, NJ (WPIX)—
Three weeks after New Jersey's largest city had to lay off more than 150 cops, crime spikes up significantly in Newark, leaving residents on edge.Cops are on the hunt for whoever killed a teen execution style Sunday night. Police say that somebody shot a 16 year-old boy in the head around 7:30 p.m. He was pronounced dead on the scene at a home at 55 Lindsley Avenue. Monday morning, a police cruiser with its lights flashing remained outside of the home in the Vailsburg neighborhood, which has an average reported income more than 25 percent higher than the rest of Newark.
The rest of the city of 280,000 has reports of carjackings and shootings in every ward over the past weekend. Since Friday evening, Newark cops have investigated nine carjackings, almost all of which remain unsolved cases.
One of the most recent carjackings resulted in an exchange of gunfire between at least two suspects and an off-duty Essex County Sheriff's Department officer. The off-duty cop shot back after one of two men tried to steal the officer's late model Mercedes sports car right in front of the officer's home on Sunday afternoon. The officer wasn't hurt but he was treated for trauma and high blood pressure at a local hospital. The suspects got away.
Several hours later, another carjacking was reported three miles away.
No deaths are reported in any of the weekend's carjacking attempts. As for the Sunday night homicide, police have not yet released information about a possible motive.
