Newark Buries Playground Shooting Victims

(AP)  The mayor of New Jersey's largest city shouted and pounded a podium — yelling, "Enough is enough!" near a coffin containing the body of a young man who was one of three killed execution-style last weekend.

Mayor Cory A. Booker was interrupted by applause as he passionately urged the people of Newark to make a difference and help fight a murder rate that has spiked in recent years.

Quoting the words of the father of Dashon Harvey, 20, Booker said, "We need to raise our children."

Harvey's funeral in a Baptist church was part of a morning of funerals. Services were scheduled later for Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Iofemi Hightower, 20.

The friends were shot during an apparent robbery attempt that authorities have called one of the most disturbing killings in Newark in recent memory.

Terrance Aeriel's sister, Natasha Aeriel, was shot in the head but survived and has helped investigators identify a suspect in the case.

The three victims were ordered to kneel in front of a wall before each was shot in the back of the head, authorities have said.

On Thursday, Booker announced the arrest of 28-year-old Jose Carranza and a 15-year-old male who was not identified because of his age. Another 15-year male was arrested Friday night, and authorities continue to seek other suspects in the murders.

Scores of students from Delaware State University, where Harvey and the Aeriel siblings were students, were expected to attend the funerals, as were Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Attorney General Anne Milgram.

"As a human being, not just your governor, I am here with a broken heart, a sad heart, a heavy heart," Corzine said at Harvey's funeral. "These children deserved better."

All four shooting victims were Newark residents. Hightower, who was in the process of enrolling at Delaware State for the fall semester, and the Aeriels attended West Side High School, while Harvey graduated from University High.

Funeral services for Harvey were held at Newark's Metropolitan Baptist Church. Terrance Aeriel's funeral was scheduled for New Hope Baptist Church in Newark and Hightower's was to be held at Grace Temple Baptist Church in Newark.

[vancouverboo]

Too bad, but these things will happen. Getting the cheap labor from Latino Americano is more important to the power structure that controls the government than anything else and a few rapes and murders are the price we have to pay.

[kaiyo4u]

Posted by whatithink
You're right, race should have nothing to do with this. It was a terrible and horrible crime. We have promising children dead at the hands of criminals who should not have been on the streets in the first place...

[sanfelz]

This mindless violence is the real terror that afflicts this country. The fear transcends all economic and ethnic groups.
Resources are wasted by strip searching old ladies in airports and confiscating shaving cream from carry-on bags.
Carry the fight against daily terror to the streets of the country, not to the streets of Iraq.

[whatithink-2009]

It amazes me that every topic that happens to a black person turns into something racial. People just can't have sympathy for another and that be it.

If our souls are the most important and this shell that is our body is only temporary, why do people only focus on the shell?

[whatithink-2009]

vancouverboo and kaiyo4u,

Your theory would explain why the only people going missing these days are white women via the media. It would also explain why we focus on those black miners in Utah or the black family in CT or the black lacrosse players in NC or all the laws named after black children who have been killed.

I get your point.

[kaiyo4u]

Two ******** raped and murdered a white girl in Portland, Oregon last week. Who cares if you're not negro? Not the media.
Posted by vancouverboo at 09:45 PM : Aug 11, 2007
I used to live there. A friend of mine told me his daughter tried working for a fast food place while in high school but quit due to the harassment from the male Hispanics that work there. Ever wonder why it's a job Americans won't do? She said they were creepy and would not stop if told no. Probably illegal with a fake SSAN.
Your right if the victim isn't of "color" it probably won't hit national news. Because white people aren't victims...They're the ones causing all of these sordid things to happen...
go figure.

[vancouverboo]

Two ******** raped and murdered a white girl in Portland, Oregon last week. Who cares if you're not negro? Not the media.

[whatithink-2009]

So sad. So much hope. Gone.