NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Police were seen investigating an apparent shooting on Seaman Street in the Fourth Ward around noon on July 25.

New Brunswick Today’s Carlos Ramirez broadcast live from the scene the investigation, located between Livingston Avenue and Drift Street, near the headquarters of the city’s Fire Department.

“Around 40 minutes ago, shots were fired,” said Ramirez at 12:52pm. “EMS was soon seen taking a man into their ambulance. It’s unknown his condition at this moment.”

NBT’s Carlos Ramirez broadcast live from the scene of the crime in English and Spanish.

The bilingual broadcast depicted a car with a flattened tire, a busted window, and a damaged rear bumper while New Brunswick Police Department (NBPD) detectives photographed the scene and placed cones to mark the locations where they found shell casings.

About 24 hours after the incident, NBPD issued a statement that did not identify the victims or any suspects, except to say the victims were city residents who “refused to cooperate” with police.

“Two male victims (both residing in New Brunswick) received non-life threatening injuries as a result of the shooting,” reads the statement.

“Both victims are familiar with each other and the preliminary investigation suggests they were the targets of the shooting. Both victims have refused to cooperate with the investigating detectives.”

This is at least the third incident where gunshots were fired in the Hub City this month. As we reported, two men were hit with gunfire near the corner of Throop and Delavan on July 4.

According to a crime alert issued by the Rutgers University Police Department (RUPD), officers also responded to a “shots fired” call on July 13 at approximately 3:06AM.

The incident occurred on Senior Street between Sicard and Wyckoff in the city’s Sixth Ward.

“In this incident local residents, who are affiliated with Rutgers University, reported that shots were fired in the direction of a private residence,” reads the crime alert. “There were no reported injuries as a result of this incident and Police patrols have been increased in the area.”

Under a 2014 change in policy, RUPD notifies the community about all “serious crimes” that it learns within the city’s Fifth and Sixth Wards, which includes many of the off-campus areas where college students are most likely to live.

By contrast, the NBPD only shares information about a fraction of the shootings, stabbings, and other serious crimes that occur in other city neighborhoods.

An interactive crime map that had been a part of the city’s website was rendered useless by the NBPD’s decision to hand over their computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system to RUPD on December 10. The NBPD says it plans to re-introduce the online crime map in the future.

So far there have been no reports of murders with guns this year in New Brunswick. Neither of the two Hub City murders charged so far in 2019 involved guns.

Asked multiple times how many non-fatal shootings have taken place so far this year, the department’s public information officer, Captain JT Miller, declined to say.

The New Jersey State Police have not updated their own online crime statistics since December 2018.

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.