Frustrated residents say Paterson ‘too dangerous’ as city hits homicide record
PATERSON — Thursday’s recording-setting homicide struck close to home on multiple levels for 26-year-old Thalia Gil, who lived down the block from where the killing happened.
Gil said she would exchange pleasantries with the 25-year-old victim, Jasmin Wel, who witnesses said was found bleeding in the driver’s seat of her car near her home, crying out for her mother.
Gil said she also had been good friends with Khadija Wilson, the 27-year-old woman who was killed Nov. 24 in a shooting less than a mile away.
“I’ve lost too many friends to the streets,” Gil said. “You can’t even sit in your car anymore in Paterson. I never eat at any restaurants in Paterson. It’s too dangerous. I go to places like Prospect Park or Paramus. I’m planning to move to Pennsylvania as soon as possible.”
Wilson was Paterson’s 27th homicide victim of 2021, her death matching less year’s record for killings. Eight days later, Wel became the 28th person killed in the city. Local officials have attributed the outbreak in violence to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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On the day after Wel’s death, officials announced that the federal justice department was giving Paterson $700,000 to create a technology-based crime gun center.
“I didn’t hear about the homicide here but it seems like someone gets shot in Paterson every night,” said 50-year old John Brown as he stood near the scene of Wilson’s death on Summer Street. “I don’t think the reason there are more homicides is due to COVID-19. I think it’s too late for anything to get better.”
On East 24th Street, where Wel was killed, a group of Paterson homicide detectives went door to door interviewing area residents. Numerous numbers and markings with yellow spray paint covered the street’s pavement in front of the victim’s home. Neighbors said they counted 21 markings, representing 21 gunshots.
Carlo Pasqual, 53, said Wel was his sister-in-law’s daughter who lived with him. Pasqual said Wel had arrived home around 8:30 p.m., double-parked, and was waiting for a parking spot to open up.
“She called her mother who was in the house to let her know she was outside,” Pasqual recounted.
Shortly after that came the gunshots.
“I immediately went outside and saw that Jasmin was in distress,” said neighbor Tejeda Dioscori, 57. “Her father was already outside. We both went to help her. She was in the driver’s seat of the car and was crying out for her mother.”
Dioscori said that he and Jasmin’s father carefully lifted the young lady out of the vehicle and placed her on the ground.
“We both held Jasmin in our arms until the police and medical workers got here,” Diocori continued. “We kept talking to her, trying to keep her awake because she kept seeming to go to sleep.”
Diocori said that emergency personnel arrived within “a minute.”
Meanwhile, Gil recalled her friend who was killed the previous week.
“I’ve known her since 2011,” she said. “We met through a mutual friend. We would often go out for drinks or for food. She was shot and died last week. She didn’t even make it to Thanksgiving.”
Sheet that served as a makeshift memorial for Wilson was still present on a side wall of a liquor store on Park Avenue early Friday afternoon. A worker at the store said that Wilson’s homicide occurred on his day off.
“The shooting happened right on this corner,” the employee said. “Khadija used to live in one of the apartments in this building. It happened at about 8:45 at night. She had four kids. Everybody liked her.”
Ed Rumley is a contributing writer for Paterson Press.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ homicides: Record set, city 'too dangerous,' say residents
