Homicide detectives last night were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the slaying on Bellevue Avenue of Hassan J. Peters, but Detective Capt. Joseph Ju niak said preliminary information gathered from witnesses suggest that multiple gunshots were fired at Peters by the occupants of a passing vehicle.
No descriptions were available, however, of that vehicle or its two male occupants.
Juniak said last night that it is too early to tell if there is any gang connection to the killing. He said detectives will be looking into Pet ers' background and speaking to his family to learn more about why he might have been targeted.
It was about 6:15 p.m. when police received reports of a shooting on Bellevue Avenue, between Fowler and Calhoun streets. Officers and emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene within minutes to find Peters -- shot in the upper body -- in critical condition. Juniak said an autopsy will determine precisely how many times Peters was shot. Peters, a resident of nearby Fairway Drive, was rushed by am bulance to Capital Health System at Fuld hospital and pronounced dead a short time later, Juniak said. Immediately after they arrived, police shut down Bellevue Avenue and cordoned off the area sur rounding the shooting -- just a stone's thrown from the rear parking lot of Shiloh Baptist Church -- with crime scene tape.
"This is crazy. It don't make no sense. They're killing each other for nothing," one bystander said aloud, to no one in particular, as he watched detectives scan the street with flashlights in search of evi dence. On Feb. 19, 2002, a teenage Peters was injured in a freak accident involving a police car. According to The Times' archive, a police car traveling on Calhoun Street was struck by another car. The police car then jumped a sidewalk and stuck Peters, then 16, breaking his pelvis.
Yesterday's slaying was Trenton's 18th homicide of the year.
No descriptions were available, however, of that vehicle or its two male occupants.
Juniak said last night that it is too early to tell if there is any gang connection to the killing. He said detectives will be looking into Pet ers' background and speaking to his family to learn more about why he might have been targeted.
It was about 6:15 p.m. when police received reports of a shooting on Bellevue Avenue, between Fowler and Calhoun streets. Officers and emergency medical personnel arrived on the scene within minutes to find Peters -- shot in the upper body -- in critical condition. Juniak said an autopsy will determine precisely how many times Peters was shot. Peters, a resident of nearby Fairway Drive, was rushed by am bulance to Capital Health System at Fuld hospital and pronounced dead a short time later, Juniak said. Immediately after they arrived, police shut down Bellevue Avenue and cordoned off the area sur rounding the shooting -- just a stone's thrown from the rear parking lot of Shiloh Baptist Church -- with crime scene tape.
"This is crazy. It don't make no sense. They're killing each other for nothing," one bystander said aloud, to no one in particular, as he watched detectives scan the street with flashlights in search of evi dence. On Feb. 19, 2002, a teenage Peters was injured in a freak accident involving a police car. According to The Times' archive, a police car traveling on Calhoun Street was struck by another car. The police car then jumped a sidewalk and stuck Peters, then 16, breaking his pelvis.
Yesterday's slaying was Trenton's 18th homicide of the year.
