Detectives checking whether Friday's fatal shooting in Jersey City is linked to shooting of two men two hours earlier that evening

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Homicide detectives are looking into the possibility that the shooting death of a 19-year-old Newark man in Jersey City over the weekend is connected to a double shooting that occurred hours earlier.

"It is part of the investigation to determine if it is connected to the earlier incident," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday regarding the death of Ashanti Sawyer at 6 p.m. Saturday, about 18 hours after he was shot at Oak Street and Ocean Avenue.

Sawyer, who was born and raised in Jersey City, was shot in the head when two men leaning out a moving car fired at least 20 rounds into a crowd that was socializing at around midnight Friday, officials said.

An 18-year-old Jersey City man, who has since been released from the hospital, was also shot in the leg during the incident.

Roughly two hours before the Oak Street drive-by shooting, at about 10 p.m. Friday, two Jersey City men were shot at Rutgers and Chapel avenues. Both men told police they didn't see who shot them.

Responding officers found a 26-year-old Rutgers Avenue man who had been shot in the left buttock and a 22-year-old Pine Street man who had been shot in the upper chest, officials said, adding that both men were treated and released from the Jersey City Medical Center.

An autopsy performed at the state Regional Medical Examiner's Office in Newark has confirmed that Sawyer died as a result of one bullet that entered and exited his head, DeFazio said yesterday.

"It was an extremely dangerous incident," DeFazio said of the Oak Street shooting, adding that investigators do not know who the intended target was.

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View Larger Map Gunmen fire on friends, killing one Monday, March 21, 2011 By CHARLES HACK JOURNAL STAFF WRITER A 19-year-old Newark man died Saturday evening after being shot in the head in a drive-by shooting just after midnight Friday in Jersey City, officials said yesterday. Khalif Sawyer, 19, of Broadway in Newark, was pronounced dead at the Jersey City Medical Center at around 6 p.m. Saturday, some 18 hours after two men fired at least 20 bullets into a crowd that was socializing on Oak Street near Ocean Avenue, officials said. "That was my baby. They took my baby. He was 19," Ashanti Sawyer, Khalif's mother, said yesterday at her sister's house on Kennedy Boulevard, tears rolling down her cheek. "I thought my kids would bury me. Now I am going to bury my son," added the 39-year-old mother. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said no motive for the shooting has been determined, noting the motive did not appear to be robbery; and it is not clear if Sawyer was an intended target. "Clearly this was indiscriminate, unrestrained gun violence manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life," DeFazio said. Police officers responding to the shooting found Sawyer lying next to his bicycle with a bullet wound through his head, DeFazio said. Investigators believe Khalif Sawyer had been socializing with roughly 15 people outside the Salem Lafayette housing complex when a car pulled up and two passengers began firing semi automatic weapons at them from two passenger windows. An 18-year-old Jersey City man was also shot once in the leg and was treated at the hospital before being released, officials said. At least 20 shell casings were found in the street where the shooting occurred, officials said. Khalif Sawyer's father, Tony Alexander, 45, of Jersey City, said yesterday he received a call from his 10-year-old daughter who told him his son was shot. When he arrived at he scene his son was lying on the ground with blood coming from his head. "He was an outgoing lovable person," Alexander said about his son. Alexander said his son was a mechanic with Newark Liberty International Airport and had attended Barringer High School in Newark. DeFazio described the shooters as "extremely dangerous" and said there was no indication that anybody in the crowd was armed. "There were numerous witnesses to the event and we urge anyone who has information concerning this incident to make Hudson County Prosecutor's Homicide Unit." The tip line for the Homicide Unit is (201) 915-1345.