Slain man was target before
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
By RAMON LUNA
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City man who was found shot to death in front of the old Sidewalk Rod and Gun Club on Martin Luther King Drive Saturday had also been shot before in the same neighborhood, said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.

Deron "Corey" Chandler, 22, of Bartholdi Avenue, was shot at a month ago, according to DeFazio. A bullet grazed Chandler's face but he was not seriously injured, said DeFazio.

No suspects were arrested in the incident.

Chandler was shot shortly after midnight early Saturday on Warner Avenue near King Drive. He was hit once in the chest and fell in front of the Rod and Gun Club.

Police found a dozen spent shells from two different guns, said DeFazio.

Witnesses say the two gunmen threw their weapons into the trunk of a car but fled in a second car, according to reports.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.

Quote:

This surely can't be 'our' Pinko?

FATAL SHOTS
Monday, May 07, 2007
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Say victim, 22, confronted by 2 men

A Jersey City man was found shot to death in front of a former gun club on Martin Luther King Drive, cops said.

Deron "Corey" Chandler, 22, of Batholidi Avenue, was on Warner Avenue near King Drive in Greenville when he was confronted by two men who fired at least five shots at him, according to reports.

Chandler, who was hit once in the chest, managed to run around the corner and then collapsed face-down on the sidewalk - right in front of the old Sidewalk Rod and Gun Club.

Witnesses said the shooting happened just after midnight on Saturday morning, and that the two gunmen then threw their weapons into the trunk of a car but then fled in a second car, reports said.

By the time cops arrived, someone had turned the victim over, exposing facial injuries authorities said were likely caused by the fall, reports said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

There was no evidence of a robbery, leading investigators to believe it was a premeditated killing, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.

"We believe this is due to a prior dispute between the victim and the actors," DeFazio said.

Chandler had been released from prison in October after serving six months on a drug charge, according to state Department of Corrections records.

His cousin, who gave her name only as Pinky, sat near a shrine yesterday afternoon as friends and family came by to write tributes in marker on T-shirts and cardboard that were taped to the long-vacant Rod and Gun Club storefront. Candles in his memory burned near a pair of high-top sneakers.

Pinky said her cousin's death must have been a case of mistaken identity. She says Chandler, the father of a 3-year-old son, was a "jokester" who never wanted any trouble.

"He cracked jokes all the time," she said. "It wasn't meant for him. It was wrong."

The assailants have not yet been identified, DeFazio said, but detectives from the Jersey City Police Department and Hudson County Prosecutor's Office have been interviewing witnesses and are reviewing tapes from nearby surveillance cameras.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office homicide squad at (201) 915-1345.