When Annie McCord stepped up to the microphone during the public speaking portion of the Jersey City City Council meeting on Wednesday, she was not a happy person.
McCord spoke of her 16-year-old daughter, who was shot in the face by a single bullet around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Communipaw Avenue and Van Horne Street.
McCord said after visiting her daughter in the hospital Wednesday morning, she came home to find her house ransacked. McCord found out later that police has been searching the house to find the gun used to shoot her daughter.
Police spokesperson Stan Eason defended the police action in searching McCord’s house, saying they were acting on the theory that someone who resided at the house may have had something to do with the shooting. The shooter has still not been found.
McCord also alleged that Tuesday night, police officers were sitting in their cars and were slow to tend to the victim.
“My house was turned upside down and now I’m a victim of the Jersey City Police Department,” said McCord, trying to hold back tears. “I am very upset over this.”
City Councilman Viola Richardson, who represents the area where the young girl was shot, met with McCord and other family members who came to the council meeting.
Eason refuted McCord’s claim that police were sitting in their car, saying there were police officers on foot patrol in close vicinity of the scene of the shooting, and were tending to the victim in a “matter of seconds.” – Ricardo Kaulessar