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Shaquan "Nut" Rush and Darby "GoHard" Shirden, both 21, and Jeremy "Smoov" Perez, 23, opened fire on a group of people outside the Salem Lafayette Apartments on April 1, 2020 in retaliation for the killing the day before of a high-ranking member of their Rutgers Avenue gang, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Two people were wounded, one of them an 18-year-old associate of the Salem Lafayette gang who survived the shooting.
The other, Stephanie Jacques, was walking home after visiting her aunt when the gunfire erupted. Jacques was treated at Jersey City Medical Center and released that night, then died of her injuries the following day.
On April 4, 2020, Devon "Joker" Tutten, 24, and Tyree "Surf" or "Sunny" Witherspoon, 29, opened fire on a rival group from Wilkinson Avenue in retaliation for anothre shooting the previous day, Sellinger said.
Akim Ward, 21, was shot in the head and pronounced dead soon after, the U.S. attorney said.
Rush, Shirden, Perez, Tutten and Witherspoon are all charged with murder in aid of racketeering and discharging a firearm during a violent crime, among other offenses.
A federal judge in Newark ordered that they all remain in custody pending trial.
Sellinger credited the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Jersey City police and special agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Newark Field Division with the investigation leading to the charges.
The case was made under the auspices of the Jersey City Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), created federal authorities for “the sole purpose of combating violent crime in and around” the city, the U.S. attorney said.
Together, federal, state, county, and local agencies collaborate “to strategize and prioritize the prosecution of violent offenders who endanger the safety of the community,” he said.
Participants include Sellinger's office, the FBI, the DEA and ATF, U.S. Marshals, the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, New Jersey State Parole, the Hudson County Department of Corrections and the New Jersey State Police Regional Operations and Intelligence Center/Real Time Crime Center.
Desiree Grace, the deputy chief of his Criminal Division in Newark, is handling the case, Sellinger said.
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