39°
Gunfire erupted at Rosa Parks Boulevard and Godwin Avenue shortly before 4 p.m. Oct. 3.
In addition to the dead and critically injured victims, a 57-year-old Paterson man took a bullet in the leg.
He and the Elmwood Park teenager were being treated at St. Joseph's University Medical Center, where the third victim was pronounced dead.
This comes after two 19-year-old men and a 22-year-old woman were gunned down in separate shootings in Paterson on Sunday.
SEE: Woman, 22, Becomes Third Paterson Weekend Gunshot Victim To Die
The four homicides brought this year’s total in Paterson to 13 compared with 21 at this same time last year.
The bullet barrage erupted outside 230 Liquors, an establishment for which one of the Silk City’s most notorious drug-dealing street gangs is named.
The gang known as the 230 Boys has operated primarily along Godwin Avenue between Rosa Parks Boulevard and East 18th Street and in the vicinity of the 12th Avenue basketball courts for years.
Members sell heroin in bricks and bundles that is frequently mixed with fentanyl, the potent, synthetic opioid that's up to 50 times stronger.
Members of the 230 Boys were involved in selling heroin tied to more than 60 fatal overdoses in New Jersey in less than a year, according to an ATF complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark.
The 230 Boys are "often involved in ongoing feuds with other local gangs,” including the '4K Korner Boys,' a street gang [that] operates primarily on Rosa Parks Boulevard between Keen and Lyon streets, the complaint says.
They’ve also tangled with the Glock Boys, a street gang that operates primarily on the north side of Paterson and is often referred to by the 230 Boys as “down the hill.”
Members of the 230 Boys were the targets of a drive-by shooting at Rosa Parks and Godwin that killed 15-year-old high school basketball star Armoni Sexton several years ago.
A gunman later mowed down reputed gang leader Shakeem “230 Starter” Ricks, 25, who’d been convicted in a shooting that killed a popular 14-year-old city girl.
Federal authorities also charged another reputed 230 Boys member, 22-year-old Wyzier Peterson, with selling the heroin and fentanyl that led to a user’s death.
Peterson was among 17 reputed 230 Boys members charged in a coordinated heroin, fentanyl and cocaine trafficking case assembled by a strike force comprised of agents from the DEA, ATF and state, county and local law enforcement in 2019.
One of them was captured in Georgia.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Fort Lee and receive free news updates.
