Jersey City man charged in 5 murders

JERSEY CITY Shiquan Bellamy has been ordered held on $6 million bail.

Detectives say that means of the nine murders committed in Jersey City so far this year, Bellamy is charged with committing more than half.

Bellamy and two women had been charged in the Easter killings of the engaged couple, 27-year-old Michael Muchiaki and 25-year-old Nia Haqq.

On Monday, the 19-year-old Bellamy was charged in the Feb. 2 felony murders of cousins Mileak Richardson and Lester "Bleek" Thompson.

Those men were shot dead at the same time on Woodland Avenue back in February.

He also was charged with killing Lamonte Wright on March 27.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio says it's "beyond humanity that one young man can be charged with causing this much destruction of human life."

Those three murders are in addition to the couple that was killed just one week ago Sunday.

"As an agency, maybe, just maybe, by our swift action we prevented another victim, that's the only thing we can hang our hat on because we would have rather have prevented any one of these from happening, there's no victory here," said Tom Comey, the Jersey City Police Chief.

"This was a crime spree of the devil. We want you to know and be able to go back out there in the street. We can't say too much because the investigation still is in progress," said Sam Jefferson, the Jersey City Police Director.

Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.