BY WALTER ELLIOTT
EAST ORANGE – As an East Orange Campus High School scholar-athlete just off the northeastern corner of Lincoln Street and Park Avenue at about 3:15 p.m. on Oct. 3, a shooter opened up two streams.
The first stream is a torrent of pain and sorrow flowing among the relatives, friends and classmates of Letrell Duncan, 16 and of the city community at large.
The other currently shallow stream, being navigated by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the East Orange Police Department, are of questions – especially the perhaps most elusive one: “Why?”
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Stephens II and East Orange Chief of Police Phyllis Bindi have said that a suspect had approached Duncan on the street, some 50 yards north of the Park Avenue corner and three blocks south of EOCHS, at 3:15 p.m.
The suspect shot Duncan four times and fled. Responding EOPD officers found Duncan at 3:22 p.m. They administered CPR and had Duncan rushed to Newark’s University Hospital – where was declared dead at 3:45.
Authorities are looking for a group of people and their car that were in the area 3-3:15.
The ECPO Homicide and Major Crimes Unit and EOPD detectives are seeking an answer to “Why Duncan?”
Duncan was a point guard on the Campus High School’s Jaguars boys basketball team, scoring 180 points in his 2021-22, and last, season. The wearer of the No. 21 jersey helped the Jaguars to a 15-9 win-loss season record.
The 6-ft., 1-in., 186 lbs. sophomore had previously been with the AAU Garden State Bounce traveling youth team as a guard and team captain. He had also played on the Prospect Prep Academy squad for 15-17-year-old players.
“Trell” had been ranked on one scholastic basketball website as among the top 10 guards in New Jersey. His aunt, Marsha Douglas, told a reporter Oct. 4 that Duncan was looking to transfer to a local Roman Catholic high school team.
“Why there?” and “Why then?” are intertwined.
The shooting happened along 186 Lincoln – a fenced, vacant lot between the corner building that includes Family Grocery and the Edward T. Bowser (Elementary) School of Excellence.
EOCHS, Bowser and the Costley/Healy/Truth middle school complex on Hamilton Street had dismissed their students for the day. A released video recording from Family Grocery showed children of various ages entering and exiting the store or standing around – until several began running east on Park Avenue when the gunshots were fired.
“Why – again?” is another question with an all too familiar ring.
Antoine Sanga-Niangara, 16, was found shot dead at Lincoln Street and Park Avenue at 1:45 p.m. Oct. 6, 2020. The EOCHS football player was declared dead at the scene at 1:52 p.m.
Violent crime statistics show, on one hand, that the number of shooting victims have declined nearly 30 percent from 2020. Violent crime overall from 2017 to 2021.
There have been eight reported murders through September this year, one more than this time last year.
Mayor Theodore “Ted” Green publicly mentioned Duncan’s name in his Tuesday statement.
“A young man’s life was brazenly cut short by a senseless act of violence that we will never normalize in our city. 16-year-old Letrell Duncan deserves more,” said Green. “Our young people are hurting – and so am I. This shooting has shaken our community to our core and, collectively, we must come together to prioritize and protect our young people.”
Green, on Bindi’s behalf, said that the city’s police is working closely with ECPO detectives. EOPD patrols in school corridors have increased.
Parents, children and other adults at 8 a.m. Oct. 5 were quietly or perhaps somberly, entering and leaving the Bowser School.
East Orange School District Superintendent AbdulSaleem Hasan, in his Oct. 3 open letter, said that crisis counselors were in his schools to talk with students and adults Oct. 4-7.
“There has been a growing concern about the spread of violence, not only in our community but also across our nation,” said Hasan. “Violence creates trauma for the people directly involved as well as those in surrounding neighborhoods and communities.”
First Ward Councilwoman Amy Lewis, who also heads the City Council Public Safety Committee, said that the EOPD and the East Orange Board of Education were working “to do everything they can to maintain safe corridors for our children.
“Our children have to start looking at each other as peers and friends and not enemies,” said Lewis Oct. 4. “We’re all a part of one another in the sense that, if you hurt one, you hurt all.”
One early report has a “black male wearing dreads” approaching Duncan and firing shots.
Douglas was told by Duncan’s friends that he was walking with another friend when they “had words” with two young men. The men left but two people wearing ski masks, one of whom carrying a gun, confronted Duncan and his friend.
GSB’s Jason Coleman has organized a GoFundMe.com fundraising page for Duncan’s funeral and memorial arrangements.
Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura, on Oct. 5, has posted a $10,000 CrimeStoppers award to anyone with information that leads to the arrest to the person(s) responsible for Duncan’s murder.
Anyone with information is to call the following tip lines: ECPO’s 1(877) 847-7432 (TIPS-4EC) and/or EOPD’s (973) 266-5041. Calls will be kept confidential.
