Double murder brings city’s total to 19 and counting

TRENTON » An inconsolable man hunched over, burying his hands in his face and weeping on the sidewalk after he and several others spent 10 minutes talking to city homicide detectives.

Two women walked over, wrapped their arms around the man and led him to a parked vehicle.

That was the scene Wednesday morning on the 1100 block of Stuyvesant Avenue, where two victims were gunned down hours before.

Police had just taken down yellow-crime scene tape and released the scene as The Trentonian arrived.

Two men, identified as Richard Guarderas, 18, and Malcom L. Bowser, 19, both of Trenton, became the 18th and 19th murder victims of the year, police said.

They were idling in a gray Kia, in the middle of Stuyvesant Avenue around 4:09 a.m., when an unknown assailant riddled their vehicle with bullets, striking them multiple times, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.

No one has been arrested in the double homicide, as Trenton, under the direction of TPD Director Sheilah Coley, surpassed the numbers of homicides it had the last two years a little more than halfway through the year.

Last year, Trenton suffered 16 homicides and 17 in 2018. The capital is on pace for 38 murders this year, a staggering number that would eclipse the previous record of 37, set in 2013.

In changing strategies to stem the violence, Coley disbanded the controversial street crimes unit, a specialized group of officers tasked with preventing violent crime, and shifted those officers over to patrol.

The president of the union, Michael Schiaretti, criticized the decision saying past police directors haven’t had success disbanding the unit.

In New York, gunfire shot up by 205 percent during a two-week period in June, after officials in the Big

Apple also disbanded the street crimes unit as protesters demand reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death, according to the New York Post.

Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora and Coley released a joint statement on the latest killings.

Coley said authorities have “strong leads” and hope to make an arrest soon.

“We are using every available resource to support the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office in bringing the perpetrators to justice,” she said.

“This was another act of senseless violence in our neighborhoods, another sign of the uptick in crime throughout the country,” said Gusciora, who did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.

Trenton officials hope a $4.5 million State Police realtime crime center, expected to be complete in a year, will have the capital city put a dent in the gunplay.

Gusciora and Coley visited Newark Police this week to tour a similar crime center opened in December 2014