Trenton police charge man in woman’s fatal shooting caught on video

New Jersey authorities on Tuesday charged a Trenton man with the April 5 shooting death of a woman that was caught on video during a violent day in which gunfire killed three people and wounded four others, prompting the city’s mayor to order a curfew for most citizens and businesses.

Quasim Hallett, 39, was taken into custody Tuesday morning without incident in Delaware by members of the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri said. He will remain in custody in Delaware pending extradition, a spokesperson for the office said.

Hallett is charged with murder in the death of Quamierah Massey, 24, as well as weapons offenses, aggravated assault for pointing a firearm at another victim, and terroristic threats for threatening to kill an additional victim.

Massey was among a group of people who had gathered that Sunday evening in the 100 block of Hoffman Avenue, watching two young girls fight, when gunshots rang out. Police found her shot in the head. She died the next day.

Casey A. DeBlasio, spokesperson for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed that investigators retrieved video that shows a stocky gunman, believed to be Hallett, dressed in black, his face partially covered with a black mask, watching two women fighting in the street when, seemingly unprompted, he starts walking toward Massey and a gunshot rings out.

Trenton Mayor W. Reed Gusciora said the 8 p.m. curfew, announced last week, was necessary because first responders needed to fight the coronavirus were being hampered by having to respond to “needless carnage.”

“We cannot allow this violence to continue unabated through our streets and in our homes,” the mayor said.

Gusciora’s emergency order took aim at ATV riders, whom he accused of being responsible for some of the violence, banning the off-road vehicles from city streets. In addition, any gas station that serves gasoline to these vehicles will be immediately shut down, as will any businesses that remain open past 8 p.m. or cannot control social distancing and sanitary guidelines.

“Too many lives are at stake to allow this activity to continue,” he said.

Trenton mayoral spokesperson Connor S. Ilchert said, “We have issued 34 summonses since the start of the curfew. “