Downtown Jersey City residents spoke out at a community meeting on Tuesday, with Jersey City police and City Councilman Steven Fulop present, about wanting more police presence and other security measures after a recent shooting near a park on Wayne Street.
The shooting took place on Sept. 15, according to police reports, at around 3 p.m. when a gunshot was fired in front of an apartment building on Wayne Street, only a few doors away from the Angel Ramos Playground, based on a police interview with a witness walking on the block. The playground, which many area residents say is a notorious hotspot for drug dealing, is in a mainly quiet residential neighborhood and is located across the street from the historic Barrow Mansion and St. Matthew’s Church.
Four days later, the police arrested an 18-year-old man.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Jersey City Police Captain Brian Gallagher, who heads the East District covering all of Downtown, told an audience of about 40 people that both the shooter and the victim had a “beef” with one another.
For more on this story, see this weekend’s paper. – RK