Jersey City neighbors say stretch of Union Street where four teens were shot during house party is usually quiet

Published: Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 3:00 AM
By Kate Kowsh/The Jersey Journal


A BULLET HOLE, above, in an upstairs window after shootings broke up at a house party on Union Street in Jersey City, top, over the weekend.

Residents who live near the Jersey City house where four teenagers were shot early Sunday said yesterday a loud house party was taking place and then they heard gunfire.

?There was way too many cars . . . up and down the street,? said one Union Street resident, who asked to not be identified. ?The shots woke me up.?

The woman said that after hearing four or five gunshots at around 2 a.m., she saw a stream of young people rush out of the house located on Union Street near West Side Avenue.

The resident said she called 9-1-1, but was momentarily put on hold.

Gunshots, she said, are a rare occurrence on her typically quiet stretch of Union Street. ?That never would have happened when I was a child growing up in this neighborhood,? she said.

A male neighbor, who asked not to be named, said he?s lived across the street from the house where the shooting occurred for more than a decade and has a good relationship with the parents and their two children, a man in his mid-20s and a teenage girl.

?They?re very quiet, they stay to themselves,? he said yesterday afternoon. ?The parents are on vacation . . . I don?t think the parents are back.?

The man said he heard four gunshots around 1:45 a.m., called 9-1-1, and rushed to his front door to see what was happening.

After authorities arrived, the man said that the son of the family approached him and apologized for the scene. ?He walked over to me and said, ?I?m sorry,? ? he said. ?I pity them because they?re nice kids . . . It?s sad that it happened.?

View Larger Map Four teenagers shot, one critically, at Jersey City house party Published: Monday, August 22, 2011, 3:03 AM By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal Four teenagers were shot, one critically, at a house party in Jersey City early yesterday morning, police reports said. Police and ambulance crews responded to reports of a multiple shooting at a large house party on Union Street near West Side Avenue. Just before the shooting was reported, police officers on routine patrol at 1:49 a.m. were driving south on Bergen Avenue near Highland Avenue, when a Honda Civic drove past them from the other direction at high speed with no lights. The driver was honking on the horn and waving wildly, reports said. Police then turned around and followed the car, which drove through red lights at Journal Square, reports said. After pulling the car over at Pavonia and Summit avenues, police called an ambulance when they saw a 16-year-old passenger behind the driver was soaked in blood on his upper back and an 18-year-old passenger in the front seat was shot through the left side of his chest, reports said. The driver told police his friends were shot at the party and he was taking them to Christ Hospital. The 18-year-old, who was shot through the left side of his chest and left flank, was treated at Jersey City Medical Center and listed in critical but stable condition, reports said. The 16-year-old had a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the left side of his back near his shoulder blade and to the rear upper left arm, reports said. Two other shooting victims were brought to Jersey City Medical Center from the same party, reports said. A 17-year-old boy, of Williams Avenue, was brought in by ambulance, after being shot in the left forearm, reports said. An 18-year-old woman arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the right elbow after being brought to the hospital by her step-brother, reports said. Police are still investigating the shooting.