It's possible this person was silenced because he had information that would have been valuable to JCPD.

SHOOT & KILL A WANTED 'GANGSTER'
Gunmen burst into apartment, suspect is target: cops

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A teen being sought in a large street gang probe would be alive if police had gotten to him first. Instead, he was gunned down yesterday and died in a bathtub in Jersey City, officials said.

Adrell Bennett, 19, of Wade Street near Martin Luther King Drive, was shot dead when at least two people forced their way into an apartment at Arlington and Myrtle avenues in the Greenville neighborhood just after midnight, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. Investigators think Bennett was targeted.

A resident of the building said a teenage girl screamed, "They killed my cousin!" after the gunfire took the life of the man whose photograph was published Saturday in The Jersey Journal. Authorities said last week Bennett was a gang member with the "52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips."

The building resident, who chose not to give her name, said she woke to the sound of gunshots, then heard an apartment door slam, and then what sounded like two people running down the stairs.

Bennett was at the apartment with five teenage girls and an 18-year-old man when someone came to the door, DeFazio said. The man was recognized and the door was partially opened when he and at least one other man forced their way in, DeFazio said.

Homicide investigators believe more than one gun was fired, DeFazio said, adding that Bennett did not appear to have been armed.

The prosecutor said the murder "may be related to his gang affiliation, but we are still trying to determine the motive. It does not appear to be a robbery at this point."

No one else in the apartment was hurt, DeFazio said.

Homicide detectives think Bennett may have wound up in the bathtub while trying to run from his attackers. The man who knocked on the door has been identified, but police have not located him, DeFazio said.

The building resident said everyone in the apartment was hysterical when she walked in after the shooting. She said the other man in the apartment ran up the fire escape when the intruders broke in, but that he had returned.

She was told that Bennett was having his hair braided when the man came to the door and that one of the girls went to the door and recognized him, but Bennett "was saying don't let anybody in because he thought it was the cops. They said he told her to move away from the door, and he looked, and then he opened the door."

Bennett was being sought on numerous drug charges, including distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of school property, DeFazio said.

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

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3 others still sought in gang probe

Jersey journal
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The man shot dead early yesterday was one of four men sought as part of an investigation centered on Crips street gang members operating in Jersey City's Booker T. Washington housing complex.

A total of 13 adults and six juveniles were arrested between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 in the probe conducted by local, county, state and federal law enforcement. The sweep netted five adults and four juveniles who have been charged in four homicides.

Still being sought is Rashawn McFadden, 19, of Pearsall Avenue, and Jamal O'Neal, 24, and Travis Booker, 19, both of the Booker T. Washington complex, officials said.

McFadden is an alleged member of the "52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips," officials said. He is wanted on numerous drug distribution charges, including distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school, officials said.

O'Neal is wanted on drug charges, including distribution of heroin within 500 feet of public property and 1,000 feet of a school, officials said.

Booker is wanted on the charges of aggravated assault, firearm offenses and a probation violation, officials said, adding that they remain at large.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts should to call the Hudson County Prosecutors Office at 201-915-1229.

MICHAELANGELO CONTE

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Aunt: 'Young are dying quicker than old people'
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

For grieving family members gathered at the home of Adrell Bennett, it did not matter that he was an alleged gang member or that he was being hunted by the law.

"He was my first nephew, and he was my world," Bennett's aunt, Devin Simpson, said through tears as she sat with family members on the porch of his Wade Street home yesterday afternoon. "I loved him like I love my three."

Gesturing to the Greenville neighborhood, Simpson said: "There is nothing out here for the kids except to get in trouble - their gangs. It's sad because they don't even know what gangs are, they're babies. The young are dying quicker than old people."

Simpson said Bennett was born in Jersey City and she proudly displayed a photograph of him wearing a white tuxedo for the Bayonne High School prom in May.

"Pay attention to the things your kids are doing," she said as a family member came from the house and gave her something to wipe her eyes. "Talk to the kids."

MICHAELANGELO CONTE