Woman killed in Trenton, New Jersey, mass shooting remembered as loving mother

Emotions are still raw for many people living in Trenton, New Jersey, after a mass shooting left two people dead and eight others wounded. 

"I just screamed," said Arnissia Brown, who is a member of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement to protect people from gun violence. "That was my first reaction. Screaming, tears — why? What's happening here? Where were the police?"

The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office identified the two people who died in the shooting as 33-year-old Tyasiah West and 42-year-old Anthony Howlett on Monday.

West's friends affectionately called her "Ty." They remembered her as a loving mother who lit up any room she walked into. 

"Like somebody that when you see them smile and them laughing, it's going to light up the room," said Star, a friend of West. "It sucks, bro. It sucks."

Howlett was recently presented with an award for his work in the community hours before he lost his life. 

"He changed from a lifestyle that could've been his. He made a different choice and then died in that same manner when he tried so hard to get away from," Brown said.

On Monday morning, officers were seen on the 100 block of Locust Street, going door-to-door. Community anti-violence advocates plan to canvass the area.

"We're just trying to come together, trying to talk to the people in the community, try to stop a war from going on, trying to build up the community," Wayne Council, of Fathers and Men for a Better Trenton, said.

While the investigation is ongoing, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office provided an update Monday, saying "multiple suspects" walked up to a large block party just after midnight Sunday, where some 100 people were gathered and started firing into the crowd.

Four of the eight victims are still hospitalized, including three men in critical condition, according to the prosecutor's office.  

"I know they're going to catch these people, but I pray it's sooner than later," Brown said. "They are monsters; they don't have a conscience, they don't have a heart and they're walking amongst us."