Just last Sunday, two 20-year-old men were shot near the corner of Summer Street and Godwin Avenue, in a neighborhood where rival gangs have long battled over a robust drug market.
Detectives John Traynor and Mustafa Dombayci had pulled up to the corner around 10 p.m. Friday when the teen, seeing them, tried to hide in an alley doorway, Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.
When they told him to step out, the boy ran through a backyard and onto 12th Avenue, ignoring commands to stop, he said.
The boy finally laid down on the pavement in surrender after tossing a fanny pack under a parked car, Speziale said.
Dombayci took him into custody while Traynor retrieved the pack, which held a .22-caliber Ruger semi-automatic pistol, the director said.
The boy was turned over to juvenile authorities, who served him with a delinquency complaint for weapons offenses.
The gun, meanwhile, was being to New Jersey State Police for ballistics testing to determine whether it may have been used in crimes.
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