NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—A team of officers from the New Brunswick Police Department (NBPD) and the Rutgers University Police Department (RUPD) responded to a gunshot reportedly fired from a porch on Bayard Street in downtown on the evening of May 15 at about 10:30pm.

The police, who are part of a “Neighborhood Patrol Team” that focuses on the Fifth and Sixth wards, were directed by local residents to the location of a man they said had recently fired his weapon off in the air.

The NBPD said that the suspect was standing on a porch on the 100 block of Bayard Street, which spans between Joyce Kilmer Avenue North and Connector Way, just over a block away from the department’s headquarters.

When the officers confronted the suspect, he fled to the backyard of the residence and hid under a back porch, according to the New Brunswick Police.

The police immediately arrested the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Shaleik Stokes from North Brunswick, and recovered the handgun that was used in the incident.

The NBPD said that Stokes has been charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. The NBPD is continuing to investigate this incident as more charges may follow.

According to police radio transmissions, the suspect was initially described as a heavy-set Hispanic male approximately 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing roughly 200 pounds, wearing a black hat, a white t-shirt, and blue jeans.

Just a block away, police made several arrests following a February 23 shooting that began with a fight inside a barber shop near the intersection with French Street.  In that, incident one man was shot in the leg and several other men were arrested.

Rutgers University did not issue a crime alert for either incident, despite the close proximity to its downtown Health Sciences campus.

Anyone with information on the most recent incident is asked to call Detective Kenneth Abode at 732-745-5217.