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Police have arrested the man they say shot and killed a Seton Hall University student at an off-campus party and injured four others all because he could not gain admittance to the function.
Nicholas Welch, 25, of East Orange, was arrested at his home, just a few doors down from the party where Jessica Moore, 19, a sophomore honor roll student, was shot in the head while trying to tend to a friend who had been shot in the jaw.
Authorities say that Welch was angry at being denied admittance to the party because bouncers thought he might cause trouble. He allegedly obtained a gun from another man and returned to the party and began shooting. Because the area was blocked off, Welch returned to his home a few doors down from the party.
East Orange police director Jose Cordero called Welch a "coward with a gun" The Star-Ledger of New Jersey reported.
"This random and senseless act of violence which took the life of a vibrant young woman and victimized four other defenseless people was perpetrated by what I believe to be ... a coward with a gun," said Cordero.
Police are still searching for the man who allegedly gave Welch the gun, 19-year-old Marcus Bascus, of East Orange.
Welch, as he was being put into a police car bound for the Essex County jail, denied being the shooter.
"I'm innocent. I ain't do it," he said.
| Alleged gunman is escorted from East Orange Police Department |
Cordero is right. The shooter is a coward. Moore is a hero.
If Welch is the shooter, he should truly be ashamed. If Bascus gave him the gun, he deserves to be charged with murder as well.
Now, one bright light has been lost and another, Nakeisha Vanterpool, 19, of the Bronx, was left with serious injuries. The Star-Ledger reports that other injured include: Nicosia Henry, 18, a freshman from Illinois on the Seton Hall women's basketball team; Yvan Christophe, 25, a former East Orange resident and graduate of New Jersey Institute of Technology; and Daryl Elmore, 20, of New York City.
An incident like this makes you wonder what's going on in the lives of young black men that being denied entrance to a party is such a sign of disrespect that death is the penalty? Instead of going home and going to a club or hanging out with friends, Welch allegedly thought murder was the best way to resolve the problem.
What's even scarier is that he left the party and should have had time to calm down. Instead of allegedly giving Welch a gun, that person should have sat him down and asked him to reconsider, calm down and let it go. It's like there's not even someone to speak the truth to our young black men in times of distress.
That's why the availability of guns will be an issue in the deaths of tens of housands of Americans until we recognize this is a safety issue.
Now, both men are likely to spend a major chunk, if not the rest of their lives in prison. No party that I have ever been to is worth the lives of innocent people or my freedom.