Killings in Newark test Delaware State community

BALTIMORE – Bullets pierced through the walls and windows of Addison Wright’s South Side Chicago home as a drive-by shooting that would claim at least two lives took place on his block this summer. The aunt and cousin of the Delaware State University senior, who were on the first floor in the living room, dived to the floor as the spraying bullets narrowly missed them.
From the third floor, Wright also heard the gunfire. He escaped harm as well.
Months later, the memory of that Chicago afternoon is still fresh in the student’s mind. But that near-tragedy has been overshadowed by a more recent act of violence.
“That was nothing compared to what happened in New Jersey,” Wright said.
The execution-style slayings of three Delaware State University students – including 20-year-old Dashon Harvey, a friend of Wright – in Newark, N.J., on Aug. 4 has attracted international media attention.
Gunfire regularly claims lives in cities across the nation, as with the drive-by victims in Wright’s hometown neighborhood. But the killings of Harvey, Iofemi Hightower, 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18, have proved to be anything but regular.
The three students, along with Aeriel’s sister, Natasha, 19, were listening to music in the parking lot of Mount Vernon School in their Newark hometown on the evening of Aug. 4 when they were approached by a group of men. Harvey, Hightower and Terrance Aeriel were forced to kneel facing a wall and then were shot execution-style in the backs of their heads. They all died. Natasha Aeriel was also shot, but survived and is recovering. Police say they have not determined a motive.
Outrage from candidates
The heinous nature of the crime shocked not only the Newark and Delaware State University communities, but elicited expressions of outrage from senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who both mentioned at a convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. Some Newark residents have called for the resignation of Mayor Cory Booker over his failure to stem the violence in the city, with the killing of the three students serving as the catalyst.
As the Delaware State administration and students prepare to begin a new school year, the investigation into the killings of three of their own continues.