A man was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 9-year-old boy in Newark last week, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The boy was on the way to visit his grandparents when he was shot Friday evening, according to his aunt. A 36-year-old man, who has not been identified, was found wounded by gunfire three blocks away, the authorities said. Both shootings happened shortly before 6 p.m.
The man who was arrested, Jesse J. Dunbar II, also faces charges of first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a weapon, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. The office said he was “also charged with shooting an adult male,” but did not say whether that referred to the 36-year-old.
“The killing of any persons is a tragic occurrence, but it is particularly heinous when an innocent 9-year-old child loses their life to all too common senseless violence,” Theodore N. Stephens II, the county prosecutor, said in a statement.
Mr. Dunbar, 36, a longtime Newark resident, has no history of arrests for gun offenses or violent crimes, according to New Jersey municipal court records.
Carmen Martin, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, declined to say whether there was a connection between the two victims.
The boy, identified as Yasin Morrison by his aunt Lataisha Morrison, was getting out of an Uber with his father and sister when shots rang out, his aunt said. Yasin’s father tried to press the child back into the car and against its floor, but a bullet struck the back of the boy’s head, Ms. Morrison said. A neighbor said she saw police officers lift Yasin’s body and place him in the back of a police car.
Ms. Morrison said her nephew was a “very special kid” who came from a tight-knit family. He was nonverbal and autistic, she said, and had been looking forward to seeing his grandparents before he was killed.
Gun violence has been a leading cause of death for children and teenagers in recent years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2019 and 2023, most of those deaths were homicides, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control advocacy group.
The post Man Is Charged With First-Degree Murder in Shooting of Newark Boy, 9 appeared first on New York Times.
