The life of a young man with dreams of college cut short after violence erupts in Camden

Jonathan Rojas had made mistakes in his young life, but he had dreams of going to college and working as a lifeguard as he planned his future.

Early Monday morning, his life was cut short as the 18-year-old sat in his SUV with a friend at Fourth Street and Kaighns Avenue in Camden, when a gunman approached and opened fire. Rojas was killed and his friend, also 18, of Glassboro, was wounded.

"This is my worst nightmare come true," said Tim Gallagher, codirector of the Camden youth program Community Adolescents Striving for Achievement. Gallagher said he taught Rojas when he was in grades six through eight and kept in touch with his family. Gallagher he saw Rojas in June and he told him he was looking forward to attending Camden County College.

"He was doing really well," Gallagher said, describing Rojas as optimistic and enthusiastic about college. "He was trying to look toward a brighter future."

According to law enforcement, Rojas and his friend, who was not identified, were in the SUV at about 7:45 a.m. when a gunman on a bicycle released a barrage of bullets. When police arrived, the two men were on the ground suffering from multiple wounds. Rojas was pronounced dead about 10 a.m. by hospital staff. The younger man survived.

The gunman, police said, is Jermaine Venable, 46, of Clementon who allegedly fled toward Third Street, where he climbed into a silver SUV as seen on surveillance video obtained by Camden detectives. Police later found the unoccupied vehicle on the 700 block of Thurman Street. Venable and Dametre Tokley, 25, of Camden were arrested a short time later when they left a house on the 1500 block of Eighth Street and tried to leave in the SUV, police said.

Both men are charged with first-degree murder. Authorities did not disclose whether they know why Rojas and his friend had been targeted.

Gallagher said that inside the classroom, Rojas was a "jokester and respectful." And, he was smart.

"The tough-guy image he had outside the classroom was not the same image he had inside the classroom," Gallagher said. "He was a funny kid, lighthearted."

When Gallagher last saw Rojas, he told his former teacher that he had "messed up" but added, "I know I want to be something different in the future."

Rojas had served time in a juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania. In March 2016, Rojas and two others were arrested in the shooting of a 17-year-old behind Archbishop Ryan High School in Northeast Philadelphia, court records show.

The victim told police at the time that he and friends were hanging out near the baseball field behind the school about 10:30 p.m. when Rojas and another teen approached. The teen said Rojas asked him to buy drugs and they got into a dispute. Rojas then made a call and a third person showed up with a gun, shooting the teen in the leg. Rojas and his two friends were charged with conspiracy, aggravated assault, and related offenses.