GUNNED DOWN
Man, 35, murdered outside gambling spot in Trenton
TRENTON » An ace of spades, a jack of clubs and other playing cards littered the street.
Spitting distance from the cards on the 500 block of Lamberton Street in Trenton on Friday morning were more than 20 circles outlined in chalk where bullet shells landed the previous night.
Two city men were struck by the gunfire as they hung out on a red double front stoop on the street in the city’s South Ward.
Kryronne Hazel, 35, was found on a sidewalk on the 400 block of Lambeton Street suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Capital Health Regional Medical Center, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said Friday in an email.
A 39-year-old man was also struck in his left cheek by the hail of gunfire. Authorities said he arrived at the hospital by personal vehicle.
Neighbors described the area where the shooting occurred as a nuisance spot that attracts illegal gambling.
“They gamble and stand outside the house on the front stoop,” one neighbor said, noting 15 people at any given time can loiter at the spot playing cards. “Everybody is outside every night. Sometimes late at night, they start screaming.”
A couple who lives on the street believes many of the people who hang out at the illegal gambling operation don’t even live in the city.
“They come in taxies, they come in big SUVs and they all carry weapons,” the neighbor said. “We’ve had our house shot, my car shot up and my husband’s car has been damaged.”
The murder was a street over from where the 35-hour standoff situation occurred in May that left an innocent bystander dead.
Residents say they are being held hostage in their homes due to the far-too-common crime and shootings in the area.
“We can’t sell the house,” said one resident, who lived on the block of Thursday night’s deadly shooting. “We had it on the market for a year and we had one person come and look and it.”
One woman thought that the gunfire last night was actually fireworks from the Trenton Thunder game.
“When they win, they shoot off firework,” the woman said. “But no, it was sadly bullets.”
One neighbor was outside cleaning up all the cards, empty heroin baggies and deserted bottles of Remy Martin VSOP on Friday morning.
After five minutes, he showed a reporter that the trash can was full. “Look at this,” the man said in disgust.
Friends, who knew Hazel by the nickname of “KD,” took to social media to pay tribute to the slain man.
“Every time he said something (there) was a meaning behind it,” one man wrote. “He was the definition of a real (person).”
Other people expressed anger over the violence.
“Who raised these dumb miserable (explicit),” one man wrote on Facebook, noting shots were fired at a spot where kids sometimes hang out. “Can’t even chill in (your) own neighborhood.”
On Friday morning, two cars were towed away from directly outside of the house where the shooting occurred.
“That’s the last time you’ll be seeing me,” one woman said who lived on the street as she walked toward the home.
Another woman asked to a man, “You got the sheet,” which is a white bedsheet that is hung and used to pay tribute to those murdered in Trenton.
The neighborhood has changed drastically.
At one point, one woman who has owned a home since the early 1970s said she would keep her front door open at night.
“This street didn’t used to be like this,” she said, pointing out the vacant properties on the street and the bodega that appears to be a magnet for loitering. “It’s declining over here because of the situation.”
Hazel for most of his adult life operated as a drug dealer, according to court records, which show he had pleaded guilty on multiple occasions to possession and distribution charges.
He was most recently arrested July 13 by Trenton Police on drug possession and distribution charges. He was released from custody on his own recognizance the following day, court records show.
Earlier in the year, a state judge in February sentenced Hazel to two years of probation for pleading guilty to third-degree drug distribution charges.
Hazel previously served several stints in state prison on drug charges, court records show.
His death marks the 16th homicide in Trenton this year, which includes the hit-and-run death of 39-year-old Lea Pringle. The city has experienced three murders a month from May until July, with Hazel’s homicide already being the second recorded with less than two weeks into the month.
No arrests have been made in Thursday’s shooting.
The incident is under investigation by the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and Trenton police.
Anyone with information on Friday’s deadly shooting is urged to call the Mercer County Homicide Task Force at (609) 989-6406. Individuals may also call the Trenton Crime Stoppers tip line at (609) 278-8477.