By: Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal 

JERSEY CITY — A 17-year-old Lincoln High School student died in front of her friends after being shot on Brinkerhoff Street in Jersey City last night in an incident in which a second victim was wounded, officials said.

Officers responding to the location near Bergen Avenue at about 11:35 p.m. found Jade Saunders had suffered a gunshot wound to her upper body and she was pronounced dead at the scene, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced this afternoon.

The second victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center where he was treated and released, Suarez said.

Lincoln High School Principal Chris Gadsden called it an act of senseless violence and said “it hurts,” on his Facebook page.

“Jade was supposed to enjoy this senior year with her friends at Lincoln and Renaissance,” Gadsden wrote. “Jade was trying her hardest to graduate, go to prom, and live the life she was destined to live. I feel horrible for her friends who had witness her dying in front of them.”

Gadsden continued saying, “Please pray for our young people around Salem Lafayette Court. The loss of friends and loved ones around the community have been too much over the years. Please, please, please stop the senseless shooting and killing. Jade, you are loved and will be missed.”

Nearly 180 comments expressing sympathy have been added to Gadsden’s post since it went up three hours ago and it has 590 likes.

Kristen Zadroga-Hart, Saunder’s teacher at Jersey City’s Renaissance Institute, called her student’s death tragic and said it’s hard to be a teacher in Jersey City.

“It’s hard when you hear there’s a shooting and gun violence and you come in the next day and you count the heads and hope they are all there and not another statistic,” said Zadroga-Hart.

Zadroga-Hart continued saying, “How do we come in on Monday and try to get through a school day and through the regular curriculum when this is what they experienced all weekend?”

The teacher said of Saunders that “She loved her friends. She love to hang out. She had a vibrant, bubbly personality. She was a regular, typical girl.”

At the 3-story building on Brinkerhoff this afternoon a resident was scrubbing the front steps and foyer where blood spatters were still visible through the suds and bleach.

“They were just chillin’ here inside the hallway and then somebody came and shot up the hallway,” said the woman who chose not to give her name. “At first it was just girls.”

The woman said “It’s sad and it’s got to stop. What’s wrong with these people? No blood? No hearts? Monsters in disguise.”

Police found at least one spent shell casing at the scene, according to emergency responder radio transmissions.

There was no answer at the door of the address The Jersey Journal obtained for Saunders.

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