There were tears of grief and disbelief after the a get together turned violent. One of the shootings was at a street party where almost 40 people had gathered for a night of fun.
"My daughter was saying there was like a party and there was some fireworks going on and before she knew it some gun shots," neighbor Joseph Waxter said.
Police spent all night at Victoria Avenue and Garside Street combing the area for clues.
In all, three people were shot: one in the head, another in the chest, the third victim was shot in the back. Essex County authorities say 33-year-old Hope Williams was not the intended target of Saturday night's shooting, but she still died at the scene. The two men who were hit suffered non-life threatening injuries. No arrests had been made.
Joseph Waxter lives across the street from the crime scene. When he heard of the shootings, he rushed home to his family.
"I just want to see if they [are] alright emotionally because they didn't get hit or anything in the bullets," Waxter said. "But they're pretty upset. She just got under the bed, underneath the windows so she wouldn't get shot."
Police shut down a five-block radius of the neighborhood as they searched for clues.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old Kion Hinton was killed in a separate shooting in another part of Newark.
Anyone who can help the investigation of either deadly shooting is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
