Police investigate a murder on Morris Avenue Saturday morning. (Penny Ray - Trentonian)
A man was murdered in the capital city Saturday morning.
Eric Rue, 34, of Bensalem, Pa., was found unresponsive inside a gray Kia that was parked on the side of the street across from Wetzel Field in the 600 block of Morris Avenue.
When emergency personnel arrived around 8 a.m., they found the car's door wide open and quickly learned Rue had been shot multiple times in his body.
Eric Rue
Rue was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later.
The shooting occurred along the outer edges of the East Ward.
“We have to work on fixing the city,” East Ward Councilman Joseph Harrison said Saturday afternoon while participating in a backpack giveaway near the intersection of Monmouth and Locust streets. “We have a lot of problems, and we have to keep working hard. We have to keep on working on moving the city forward, positive.”
The backpack giveaway cultivated a sense of community and happiness about a mile away from where the fatal shooting occurred.
“To see little kids with a smile on their face, it is priceless,” Harrison said. “I want to see these kids smiling instead of getting caught up with something and getting in trouble.”
The annual back-to-school backpack giveaway on the 500 block of Monmouth Street was organized by Helen McCall, 84, who has been a longtime community pillar.
McCall, a great-great grandmother, said she works with youth “to help them to learn how to be better and think of education instead of the gun. I have been working with the kids for 50 years you could say.”
“I worked in the neighborhood,” she said, “and I am still at it.”
About 150 backpacks were given away at McCall’s event Saturday, she said.
“We want to give these kids an education,” Harrison said. “That’s what we want to give them.”
Since June, six people have been killed in the capital city. And so far this year, Trenton has experienced 16 killings, which includes three vehicular homicides and the death of Tahaij Wells, who was killed by police during an early morning shootout at a 24-hour arts festival.
This is a developing story.