A third Newark teen wounded in a Christmas Day shooting has died from his injuries, leading to a fresh murder charge against the 15-year-old who is being held in the killings, authorities said on Friday.
Abdul “Scooter” Frazier, 14, died early on Friday morning at University Hospital, said Chief Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly.
Frazier was the only initial survivor of the triple shooting in the city’s South Ward that killed a 13-year-old girl, Zainee Hailey, and a 15-year-old boy, Kasson Morman — and sparked fresh outrage among residents already reeling from violence in their city.
Hailey and her little brother, aged 7, were carrying trash bags to the curb from their Schley Street home around 10 p.m. when one or more shooters sprayed bullets at the porch, authorities said.
The younger sibling was unhurt, but seventh-grader Hailey was struck by gunfire that police said was probably meant for either Frazier or Morman— two close friends who were standing in front of the same multi-family dwelling.
An honor-roll student who sang in her church’s choir and planned to go to college, Hailey had spent her last day celebrating Christmas with her parents and siblings, and had just unwrapped a Kindle reader as a gift before going downstairs to take out the garbage, relatives said.
Police arrested a 15-year-old suspect in the shootings on New Year’s Eve but haven’t released his name because of his age. He is being held in the Essex County Youth Detention Facility to await trial on three counts of murder, prosecutor Fennelly said.