The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A $5,000 reward has been posted for information into last weekend’s multiple shootings that left a township man wounded and included a shootout in a parking lot.
Police have no new information on the incidents, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Jack Bennett said Wednesday.
The incidents began on shortly after 3 p.m. Aug. 23 when township police responded to a report of shots being fired in a commercial parking lot at Millstone Road and Route 27 in Somerset.
The investigation revealed a shootout between a lone person in the lot and someone with a group of people in a car, police said. Police found “numerous” shell casings on the ground, but no one questioned about the incident would cooperate with police, authorities said.
The second shooting occurred at about 10:47 p.m. at Millstone Road and Mark Street, police said. Shortly after responding, police were told that an unidentified 24-year-old man was being treated at a nearby hospital – which police did not name – for a single gunshot wound to his elbow and arm.
When questioned, the victim said that he was struck at the Mark Street shooting, but could not provide any information about his attacker, police said.
The third incident occurred at about 12:37 a.m. Aug. 25 on Baier Avenue. The person making the “shots fired” call told police that four men were seen running toward Matilda Avenue shortly after the shots were heard. A canvas of the area was fruitless, police said.
The incidents are being investigated by township police and Prosecutor’s Office detectives. Investigators are still trying to determine if all three incidents are related.
The $5,000 reward is being posted by Crime Stoppers of Somerset County, Inc., police said.
Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call the Somerset County Prosector’s Office Major Crimes Squad at (908) 231-7100; the Franklin Township Police Department at (732) 873-5533, or the Somerset County Crime Stoppers’ Tip Line at (888) 577-8477, or online at www.888577tips.org or www.scpo.net and click on either “Crime Stoppers” or “TIPS HOTLINE.” All calls are confidential.
[wpgmappity id=”1″]