Here Are My Thoughts!
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

The shrieks are jarring. Moments before, a heavy-set black woman and a skinnier lighter-skinned woman squared up, hands by their faces, in the middle of the street.

People follow them down through the neighborhood, on the 100 block of Hoffman Avenue.-

There’s a glimpse of the suspected shooter, a man in the street, sources say. He was described by witnesses as dressed in gray/charcoal-colored clothing, sources said.

Somebody shouts, “If you ain’t gonna do something, I’ll do something,” according to the video.

Then the man, standing near the fight, approaches another woman on the sidewalk and appears to smack her in the face.

VIEWER WARNING: This video contains explicit violence.

“Oh, snap. Oh sh*t, hell no,” someone shouts as the crowd gathers around the man in black. Seconds later, a single gunshot rings out sending the group scattering in all directions.

The 43-second clip, which appeared on Worldstar Hip Hop, a content aggregation site known for posting sensational videos of fights and general social deviance, is at the center of a murder investigation.

The video, viewed more than 811,000 times as of Wednesday, depicts the moments that led up to Sunday’s execution-style murder of Quamierah Massey, 24, who was among the group watching the fight when she was mercilessly shot in the head.

It’s hard to clearly tell if Massey is the same woman who appears to get hit in the face moments before.

But, according to sources, “We believe so. It’s more like he put the gun to the side of the face. Video is going to be enhanced if it can be.” 

It all happened amid a global coronavirus pandemic when the loss of life in New Jersey has been sobering. Massey was one of three people killed in a span of four hours in the capital city.

A police source confirmed the video, which doesn’t actually capture the shooting in its gruesomeness, is real.

It was originally streamed on Facebook Live, something Mayor Reed Gusciora condemned as “deplorable,” before it ended up becoming viral.

Gusciora called the footage “barbaric.”

“This should not be representative of Trenton,” the mayor said. 

A longer, fuller clip is in the hands of the police, according to the source, who said it provides more depth into the depraved mind of the shooter.

Some of the events captured on that snuff film, not depicted in the short clip on the web, have been described to The Trentonian.

The fight picked up further down the block, the source said. Not wanting a full-out brawl near their home, someone shouted at the group to disperse or they’d sic their dogs on them, the source said.

“Get the f**k away from here,” the person said. “I got dogs.”

As the women get ready to exchange blows, someone else shouts, “Let them have a fair one. We’ll get this sh*t over with,” according to the source, who viewed the footage.

The man in the gray/charcoal-colored clothing, identified as the suspected shooter, then says: “Nobody’s going to jump in this sh*t,” sources said.

Massey appeared to be stepping off the curb, just before the killer opened fire, leading police to suspect the gunman may have thought she planned to get involved in the scrap, the source said.

The source said you can’t really see the gunman pull out his piece, but the shot is unmistakable.

“You hear, ‘boom’ one shot,” the source said, confirming what the Worldstar clip shows. “You hear someone say, ‘oh sh*t, and then you see his hand moving and boom. Then everyone takes off.”

No arrests have been made, but police believe they have a beeline on the killer, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s hauled in.

A city official and a ex-Trenton cop took to Facebook afterward to criticize The Trentonian for re-publishing the video after it was published by Worldstar.

At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley planned to write to the publisher to share his outrage.

“Their need for news at all cost is particularly revolting,” he wrote. 

Ex-city cop Luddie Austin added: “The Trentonian lives off the pain and violence that occurs in the city.