[Calpernia]

Fourth Suspect Identified in Newark Killings

Authorities in Newark have issued an arrest warrant for 24-year old Rodolfo Godinez described as "a principal player'' in the murders of three college students. Tears, anger and a resolve to end the deadly violence that has scarred the city marked yesterday's funeral services.

NEWARK, NJ (1010 WINS)  -- Tears, anger and a resolve to end the deadly violence that has scarred New Jersey's largest city marked the funeral services Saturday for three college-age youths killed execution-style a week earlier.

Mayor Cory A. Booker was interrupted by applause several times at Metropolitan Baptist Church as he passionately urged the people of Newark to make a difference and help fight a murder rate that has spiked in recent years.

1010 WINS AUDIO: Kathleen Maloney Reports

``Enough is enough!'' Booker thundered as he pounded a podium next to a flower-draped coffin containing the body of 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, an aspiring fashion model and social work major at Delaware State University who was remembered by his classmates as good-hearted and always wearing a smile.

Later, at a service for 18-year-old Terrance Aeriel at overflowing New Hope Baptist Church, Booker said to shouts of encouragement from the overflow crowd, ``I will not break, I will not bow, I will not give in. This issue will not define us.''

1010 WINS VIDEO: Newark Mourns Three Lives Cut Short

It was a day of mourning in the city, with funerals for Harvey, Aeriel and 20-year-old Iofemi Hightower.

Terrance Aeriel's sister, Natasha Aeriel, was shot in the head during the attack but survived and has helped investigators identify a suspect in the case.

The three victims were ordered to kneel in front of a wall before each was shot in the back of the head. Robbery was the apparent motive, authorities have said.

The brutal killings sent shock waves through Newark, a city that has seen its murder rate increase 50 percent in the last decade to a total of 106 in 2006. Sixty murders had already been committed in the city through last weekend.

All four victims were Newark residents who were active in their school marching bands. Hightower and the Aeriels attended West Side High School, while Harvey graduated from University High.

Terrance Aeriel, known as T.J., was ordained as a minister at the age of 13 in 2002. He was remembered for his devotion to the church and his work with various youth organizations.

Of Harvey, who was the drum major at Malcolm X. Shabazz High School because University High didn't have a marching band, Rev. David Jefferson Sr. said at his funeral Saturday, ``If 'Shawny' were here today, he'd say, 'Celebrate!' He was a drum major, and he is just playing somewhere else now.''

At Ariel's funeral, which drew an overflow crowd, a friend remembered the ordained minister as someone who reached out to help others even as a youngster.

``As I grew up with him, he never changed,'' said friend Victoria Irving.

``He stayed the same. He always had God on his mind. That's what I loved about him. And he was a great help to me,'' Irving said.

At services for Hightower at tiny Grace Temple Baptist Church, her aunt, Gloria Hightower called her niece ``a beautiful person inside and out'' who had strived to elevate herself ``beyond what we all see around us.'' Hightower was working two jobs this summer and was in the process of enrolling at Delaware State.

Meanwhile, authorities continued to search for more suspects wanted in connection with the killings.

Booker on Thursday announced the arrest of 28-year-old Jose Carranza (above left) and a 15-year-old male, who was not identified because of his age, in connection with the triple murder. Another male teenager was arrested Friday night, and on Saturday authorities announced an arrest warrant for Rodolfo Godinez, 24, (right) described as ``a principal player'' in the case.

Scores of students from Delaware State University, where Harvey and the Aeriel siblings were students, attended the funerals, as did Gov. Jon S. Corzine, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, state Attorney General Anne Milgram and numerous Newark city officials.

``As a human being, not just your governor, I am here with a broken heart, a sad heart, a heavy heart,'' Corzine said at Harvey's funeral. ``These children deserved better. They represented the best, and they represented promise.''

[Calpernia]

Here’s a couple new articles about the tragedy Terry is talking about. As Terry says, “WHERE is Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson on this??”

It just gets worse and worse. Looks like they’re MS-13 machete attack types.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf? /base/news-12/1186893631111330.xml&coll=1

The 10 towers that make up the Ivy Hill Park apartments soar above western Newark like a city within a city. Home to 10,000 people, it is New Jersey’s largest privately owned apartment complex, an affordable haven for working-class families since the 1950s.

Residents call it a “little United Nations,” a place where kids from Central America play with kids from Sri Lanka, where Bangladeshis mix with Jamaicans, Ukrainians with Brazilians, whites with blacks.

It’s the kind of place, residents say, where serious trouble is still rare enough that it stands out.

José Lachira Carranza and his small band of friends stood out.

Residents say the group, which included at least three teenage boys, drank beer and smoked marijuana in the hallways of the 14-story towers and in the playground of the nearby Mount Vernon School.

In recent months, they turned to strong-arm robbery, ordering passers-by to hand over cash, residents said.

A week ago yesterday, that same group is alleged to have done far worse, shooting four college-bound friends in the back of their heads behind the Mount Vernon School. Three of the four died.

Carranza, 28, and two of the teens have already been charged in the killings.

Yesterday, as the victims were laid to rest and as authorities continued to hunt for others involved in the case, residents described how Ivy Hill Park became the tie between the disparate suspects, the place where they met and allegedly forged a bond through crime.

The residents portrayed Carranza and his cohorts as chronic troublemakers with apparent ties to MS-13, a Central American gang with a growing foothold in Ivy Hill Park. [snip]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/nyregion/11bar.html

“He just went berserk,” said Mr. Torres, who said on Friday that he was injured as he and two other men tried to restrain Mr. Carranza. (Family members and friends had given Mr. Carranza, an illegal immigrant from Peru, the nickname Shaka Zulu, after the African warrior, according to Mr. Torres and others.)

Mr. Carranza was arrested that night, Oct. 1, 2006, on charges of aggravated assault, and later freed on $150,000 bail. He was still awaiting trial in that case and on an unrelated charge of sexual abuse of a child when he was arrested again this week in connection with last Saturday’s brutal gun and machete attack on a group of students in a Newark playground, which left three dead and another hospitalized with a bullet wound to the face.[snip]