NEWARK, New Jersey In a city where the murder rate has risen 50 percent since 1998, three promising College students were murdered execution style in a playground on Saturday.
Their names: Dashon Harvey, 20, Terrance Aeriel, 18, Iofemi Hightower, 20. There was also a fourth victim who police say survived the gunshot wound to the head. Natasha Aeriel, 19 (Terrance’s older sister) is said to be in fair condition at the hospital.
The four lived in Newark and were to attend Delaware State University this fall. None had criminal records, according to authorities, and relatives and neighbors said they were not involved in drinking, drugs or gangs.
“They were good kids,” Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said. [SOURCE]
Cornered by thugs in a desolate Newark schoolyard, four college students kept their cool and sent each other a flurry of text messages that said, in essence - we’ve got to get out of here.
But before they could escape, three of the victims were marched to a wall, forced to kneel - and shot dead, police said yesterday.
The sole survivor, Natasha Aeriel, was in stable condition and under a 24-hour police watch at a Newark hospital after giving cops a sketchy description of Saturday’s slaughter and the five men responsible for the executions. Aeriel had been shot before the other students were slain.
“We’re getting the story piecemeal from her,” Police Director Garry McCarthy said of Aeriel, 19, a junior at Delaware State University. “Based upon witness testimony, we believe it was a robbery.”
McCarthy would not release the desperate text messages but said the victims did not appear to know their attackers. He also said they did not die without a struggle. [READ MORE]
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A $50,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the arrest of those
3 Black College Kids killed execution style