AAN organizers address questions about security
TRENTON » Event organizers on Thursday released a statement defending their decision to hire only a handful of Trenton cops to staff the city’s Art All Night festival following a wild shootout Sunday morning that injured at least 22 people, including a teenager.
Lauren Otis, executive director of Artworks — the nonprofit that produces the event, in the statement credited the police response to the firefight that broke out as the event was being shut down saying the tragedy could have been “far worse.”
He also addressed questions about event organizers’ decision to hire only four overtime Trenton Police officers to staff the event, saying that was only part of a security deployment that included additional officers from other departments and a 14-member private security detail.
Organizers worked with Mayor Eric Jackson and Trenton Police to develop the “comprehensive” security plan, Otis said.
“Before the 2018 Art All Night event, we worked tirelessly with Trenton Police leadership and Mayor Eric Jackson for months, developing a comprehensive security and public safety plan,” he said. “The public safety and security plans included having present at the event a large number of uniformed Trenton Police Officers, Mercer County Sheriff’s officers, and a private security detail.”
The statement came on the heels of repeated inquiries from The Trentonian following questions about whether organizers did enough to properly staff an event that has attracted tens of thousands of people over the years in the wake of a sensational mass shooting that has pushed the capital city into the national headlines.
Officials revealed at a news conference Tuesday that event organizers hired only four overtime police officers to work the event, though Mayor-elect Reed Gusciora told The Trentonian he saw other cops present when he arrived around 7:30 p.m., or about seven hours before at least three suspects opened fire inside a warehouse of the Roebling market.
The gunspray left people stampeding from the building into the streets as some got trampled in the chaos.
Relaying the event had went off without a hitch for 11 years, Otis said the security plan called for beefed-up presence throughout the night as “deemed necessary by Trenton Police.”
Four Trenton Police officers were at the event around 8 p.m., Otis said. In addition, he said, four Mercer County Sheriff’s officers and 14 private security guards were deployed.
Otis said he and Art All Night Event Director Joseph Kuzemka and their security detail “were in constant contact with law enforcement as we worked with them to maintain order.”
He said event officials followed a Trenton Police order more than two hours before the shooting to “shut down outdoors activities, and ultimately close down the event completely.”
He added that just before the shooting 40 cops and the security detail tried to disperse the crowd.
“The shooting that occurred at Art All Night is an unprecedented tragedy for the innocent victims and their families, for attendees, for the vibrant regional arts community, for Trenton, for New Jersey, for the nation,” Otis said. “We commend City of Trenton Police and other law enforcement on doing an incredible job containing a situation that without their presence could have been far worse.”