John Hurdle and Corey Kilgannon

Last year, Mayor W. Reed Gusciora took office mere weeks after a shooting in June in which 22 people were injured after gunmen opened fire during an arts festival.

He vowed to increase police patrols at large events and conducted an extensive search for a new director of the police department but the violence has continued.

It erupted again early Saturday with a drive-by shooting in front of a bar that left 10 people hospitalized, city officials said.

Early on Saturday, a crowd in front of the bar, Ramoneros Liquor and Bar on Brunswick Avenue, was enjoying a seasonable beginning to Memorial Day weekend when a dark car pulled up.

At least two gunmen fired more than 30 times into the crowd, sending some people running while others dived behind parked cars for cover until the car sped away.

The police said they were exploring the possibility the gunmen may have been motivated by road rage because witnesses reported that the vehicle’s driver kept honking in heavy traffic just before the shooting.

But Gusciora said the shooting might have also stemmed from feuding neighborhood gangs, a continuing source of violence in Trenton.

“We’re not saying this was road rage. We’re not saying it was retaliation because the truth of the matter is we just don’t know at this point,” Sheilah Coley, who has been commanding the city’s police force for less than a month, said at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

The victims included five men and five women between the ages of 23 and 36. Eight of them remained hospitalized Saturday evening.

Investigators have not yet identified the gunmen, but they may have a lead on their vehicle and were still analyzing video footage from the scene for that purpose, said Coley, a black woman whose appointment offered hope of diversifying a historically white department policing a mostly black and Hispanic population.

Gusciora blamed lax federal gun laws for the violent outbursts.

“New Jersey has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but guns are easily accessible in some nearby states,” he said. “This is why we need federal solutions to the gun violence epidemic.”

Trenton Shooting: 10 People Hit by Gunfire Outside Bar

TRENTON, New Jersey — New Jersey’s capital once boasted of its outsize industrial prowess with the phrase “Trenton Makes, the World Takes,” but that activity has largely dried up, and what Trenton seems to make lately is headlines for violent crime.

Trenton shooting: 10 people hit by gunfire outside bar

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Pulse Kenya is the most followed news and entertainment platform in Kenya. It informs and engages young Kenyans around the clock and provides updates by the hour.

John Hurdle and Corey Kilgannon

Articles written by the author

Trenton shooting: 10 people hit by gunfire outside bar