In a concerted effort to thwart a recent rash of violence in the Brick City, police in Newark’s high-crime South Ward area have moved their nightly roll call from the precincts to the streets, officials announced Friday night.
The innovative approach to crime fighting is a move by the Newark Police Department (NPD) law enforcement officials to combat a recent spate of killings and violence that has hit the city. For example, during the recent Fourth of July weekend, three people were killed and three others were seriously injured. One of the homicide victims was a corrections officer.
The tactic is part of the city’s Safe Summer program, which was introduced by Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Among other things, the initiative includes bringing back neighborhood foot patrols and bicycle and motor divisions to mostly high crime neighborhoods throughout the city. Hubert Henderson, an official with the NPD, told reporters that by increasing the presence of law enforcement throughout the community, police officers would come to personally know individuals in the neighborhoods. “We want to get back to those days,” Henderson said.
In a related matter, last week, 37-year-old corrections officer Katrina Owens was shot and killed by her ex-convict boyfriend at a Fourth of July barbecue in Newark. Owens was the married mother of three children and was off-duty from her job at a prison facility in Trenton, when 21-year-old Allen Barron shot and killed her during an argument. Barron eventually drove to Richmond, Va., where he shot and killed himself.
The incident marks the second time in less than two years that a New Jersey corrections officer was connected to a fatal domestic violence case involving a relationship with a former inmate in Newark. In August 2009, 39-year-old corrections officer Kelly McKenith killed her 4-month-old son and critically wounded her boyfriend, 28-year-old ex-convict Lewis Goosby, and then shot and killed herself after a heated argument.
