Police: 2 dead, 3 wounded in overnight shooting in Paterson, N.J.
PATERSON, N.J. -- Police are investigating two separate shootings in Paterson, including a mass shooting that left two people dead.
The second shooting broke out shortly after 2:40 Wednesday morning near Jersey and Oliver streets. Two men were killed -- one only 17 years old, the other 26. Three other victims were rushed to a local hospital with gunshot wounds.
"I don't want to speculate, however, it could potentially be something that stems from a Fourth of July dispute that had gone wrong," Mayor Andre Sayegh said.
The other shooting happened near Essex and Madison streets on the Fourth of July at night. Bullet holes could be seen through two windows in a nearby building.
CBS New York's Christine Sloan saw police pulling surveillance video from inside a nearby store.
"Enjoying the fireworks, and we just happened to look to the left, and you could see a group of people just kind of walking towards the store, then all of a sudden you see someone's hand go to the side and then you hear gunshots and then everybody's taking off running," Paterson resident Keisha Anderson said.
Anderon and her sister are sick and tired of the violence.
"It's kind of like a war zone," Anderson said.
Camille Allen is scared for her 4- and 9-year-old sons.
"Our Black kids, our Spanish kids are dying, and we are burying them at a rapid rate," she said.
The Paterson Police Department has been under state control since March.
The New Jersey attorney general's office released a statement saying in part, "Make no mistake, we will bring them to justice." They added the office "will not rest until our residents can live their lives free of the threat of gun violence erupting in our neighborhoods, in our houses of worship, in our schools, in our shopping centers, at our family celebrations."
"Quite frankly, what I feel like a lot of this violence stems from -- drugs," Sayegh said.
The mayor says officers have been confiscating illegal weapons and pushing for youth programs in order to beat the violence, which he says is up since the takeover.
"It's increased slightly, but we still have some work to do and we need resources, which we made abundantly clear," Sayegh said.
"You don't want your kids to play outside. You don't want to walk to the corner store because you don't know if you're going to make it back alive," Anderson said.
The suspect in the mass shooting is still on the loose.
