(Trenton police invesitgate a shooting on Ardmore Avenue Friday, Oct. 19, 2012

By Penny Ray

TRENTON — Gunfire ravaged the capital city Sunday night, leaving seven people hospitalized.

“These appear to be gang-related,” Capt. Mark Kieffer Jr. said Monday morning. “They were not random acts.” Officials say three separate shootings occured within a two-hour span, sending city cops into overdrive.

The first incident happened around 8:55 p.m. near the intersection of Stuyvesant and Bryn Mawr avenues. Police found a 22-year-old male victim at the scene and later learned that three other victims had arrived at the hospital by private means: a 29-year-old female, a 16-year-old male and a 25-year-old male. The juvenile remains in critical condition, according to police who say the other three victims are in stable condition.

A few minutes after police arrived to investigate that first incident, Shotspotter technology detected another shooting in the 1400 block of West State Street. When police arrived at that crime scene, they found 25 shell casings that had been fired from a rifle. Officials say no one was injured in the second shooting, but detectives managed to chase and arrest a suspect for gun possession. A police spokesperson did not immediately have the arrest details available for release due to the holiday.

The third shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. in the 400 block of North Montgomery Street. Police say three males were struck by gunfire in that incident, ages 22, 29 and 24. One victim was shot in the stomach, another was struck in the wrist, and the third suffered gunshot wounds to both legs. Cops say they all have been stabilized and are expected to survive.

Officials say it’s too early in the investigation to know whether the shootings are connected to each other, or to previous shootings that occurred over the weekend.

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