UPDATE (10/27): City police identified the victims of the shooting as Ricky Drake (30 years of age from Piscataway) and Ryan Howard (24 years of age from New Brunswick).  Both were taken to a hospital and treated for gunshot wounds to the leg.

“The initial police investigation suggests this shooting stems from an ongoing dispute between the victims, an acquaintance and the shooter,” reads the official police statement.

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Two people were reportedly shot in an apartment building on Commercial Avenue, shortly before midnight on Saturday, October 25, according to police radio transmissions.

Police were dispatched to the scene at 11:53 PM, where they discovered two victims, who had each sufferred gunshot wounds to the leg, in Building 8 of the 15-building complex.

It was the same building where police apprehended a man named Donnell Cook on August 7, after Cook allegedly dragged New Brunswick police officer Keven Hendricks from his vehicle after an altercation.

That incident came in the wake of an acknowledged spike, or an “uptick,” as officials called it, in criminal activity at the complex this summer.  The complex saw shootings on back-to-back weekends in July, and officials announced a drug bust earlier in the year.

There was no immediate arrest or description of the suspect, though a possible getaway vehicle was described to all police units.

“Possible suspect vehicle is a dark red vehicle, mid-to-late 90’s, with tinted windows,” reported a dispatcher, adding a caller said the vehicle fled on Commercial Avenue towards George Street.

Editor at New Brunswick Today | 732-993-9697 | editor@newbrunswicktoday.com | Website

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.