Two dead, 12 injured at a house party in Fairfield Township:
Pretty small town in South Jersey. @Loach, do you know anything about it? I think you’re a NJ police officer??
No arrests have been made.
Quick correction, Fairfield is North Jersey. It is on rt 80. I worked there for a bit in fact.
2nd Correction, apparently we have two Fairfields and one in South Jersey on the Delaware.
Yeah, this one is way south, near Bridgeton.
It’s puzzling exactly what happened. I noticed:
Residents said the trouble started when people from a neighboring party showed up to the home. That’s when rapid gunfire rang out, they said.
As has been stated, that’s in South Jersey. Might as well be in an entirely different state than me. I know what I read in the papers like you.
I thought there might have been some kind of police backchannel where big stories get around. I guess not.
This story fell off the headlines pretty quickly! Seemed like a big deal, but I guess the bigger shooting out west took over the headlines.
Too far away for anyone to know anyone who knows everything.
No big story because arrests were made pretty quickly. Also no compelling national headlines. No race angle. No crazed workplace gunman. No madman at large.
Fairfield is a nice little town. It looks like a nice house. Bridgeton is right next to it and that’s a rough town.
Yeah, that house has a giant driveway. Maybe that’s common down there – I live up in Essex County and I don’t get that far south much, and just driving through if I do. The houses where I am are much smaller and closer together.
Thanks for the additional info!
I find that particular area a little strange. It’s extremely rural. Then in the middle of it Bridgeton springs up seemingly at random. It’s small by north Jersey standards but makes up for it by having one of the highest crime rates in the state.
Not exactly. According to your link, the two arrests were only for weapons offenses, apparently weapons were found belong to the host family (not clear if they are related, same last name). The perpetrators have not been arrested and the motives are not clear. From the link:
Investigators say someone emerged from the woods and started firing.
On Monday, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal called the shooting a targeted attack. The motive for the shooting is still being investigated.
the state will be working with federal partners to determine where the guns originated from and whether they can be linked to other recent acts of violence in the area.
Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said it is estimated that several hundred people were at the party.
You’re right I didn’t read it closely. It appears there were several guns and they will be checking to see if the gun seized was used to shoot anyone. It’s seems like although someone started it, it wasn’t a case of one gunman shooting everyone. There were multiple guns recovered. Another article mentions Dawkins was shooting the gun at the party but it’s not known if he hit anyone. It seems like there were at least two sides to a gun battle.
They call Mr Dawkins the host of the party and he’s from Bridgeton not Fairfield. There is no mention of the home owner in any article I’ve seen so far. I’m wondering if it was like the problems we were dealing with last year. Several times people would rent a AirBnB house just to host an enormous house party. We had several that were advertised as Blood parties with party goers coming in from NYC. This was when New York was shut down. There would be a cover charge at the door and several hundred people would be stuffed in to a suburban house on a narrow street. We were a covid hot zone at the time. I heard that was an issue with AirBnB all over.
Man, can you imagine renting your house on AirBnB and coming back to find there was a giant house party?? Let alone a shooting.
Lots of houses have been bought up by investors running them as surprisingly profitable businesses. Probably expecting to just let it fall apart & walk away.
It was a problem during the worst part of the pandemic. Venues were closed so entrepreneurs turned to AirBnB. The company had to put in a clause prohibiting parties. Recently they extended the ban. Before individual owners would be able to ban it in their properties.
Airbnb extends 'party ban' policy through summer 2021 | Fox Business
There is an update. Zedekiah G. Holmes was charged with the murder of two of the victims and wounding several others. It’s still pretty confusing. Holmes sister was also killed. 6 guns were fired during the melee. Holmes was also charged with a previous shooting in a nearby town with the same gun.
Wow! Seems like an upstanding member of the community.
Thanks for the update.
Makes me wonder if Holmes was the target due to the earlier shooting.