Violence continues in Camden, latest outside a funeral
Authorities are searching for the gunman who killed a Camden man Thursday in front of his family outside a funeral home as his grandmother's memorial service was taking place.
Authorities are searching for the gunman who killed a Camden man Thursday in front of his family outside a funeral home as his grandmother's memorial service was taking place.
Witnesses told police that a man walked up to Jonathan Vazquez, 22, about 6:30 p.m. and fired at him multiple times, setting off chaos in front of the May Funeral Home on South Fourth Street in the city's Bergen Square section. Police found people screaming and crying, and Vazquez bleeding on the ground. He was pronounced dead at Cooper University Hospital minutes later.
It was the third killing in less than two weeks in Camden, which this spring has experienced a surge in violent crime.
"What we're seeing is violence based on vendettas or perceived slights," Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson said.
He said that the department would continue deploying officers on foot beats and using other community policing strategies, and that 60 recruits would join the force in the coming weeks. That will bring staffing to 380 officers, short of the department's goal of 426.
Including a woman who died after she was struck in a hit-and-run accident last week, there have been 15 killings in the city this year. At this time in 2015, there had been nine.
On Tuesday, police responded to a report of a shooting shortly before 7:30 a.m. on the 2500 block of Morgan Boulevard in the Morgan Village section. Edwin Davis, 43, was found on the ground and died soon after. Within a day, police arrested Allen Reed, 41, and charged him in the killing. Reed is being held at the Camden County Jail on $1.5 million bail, according to the county Prosecutor's Office.
Though authorities say most victims of violent crime in Camden are targeted, 53-year-old Tia Walker had no connection to the men who ran her down as she crossed a street in Lanning Square on April 25, investigators said. Shortly before 10 a.m., police were following two men driving a 2001 silver Cadillac DeVille that had been reported stolen that morning. When the men saw the officers, they took off at a higher speed, officials said. Walker, a mother and grandmother, was hit and later died from her injuries. The men abandoned the car after the crash and ran off.
The Prosecutor's Office released no information about the accident until more than a week after Walker died. This week, the office announced a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of the men in the car.
On Friday, spokesman Kevin Callahan would not say whether his office considered Walker's death a homicide. In past years, the office has included vehicular homicides in its homicide numbers.
Anyone with information about Walker's case is being asked to call Camden County Prosecutor's Office Detective Douglas Rowand at 856-225-8514 or Camden County Police Department Detective William Reese at 856-757-7420.
To report information on Vazquez's case, contact Detective Dennis Convery at 856-365-3279 or Detective Shawn Donlon at 856-757-7420.
Information can be emailed to ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org.
856-779-3876 @AESteele