The 17-year-old suspect, who was shot by a Bloomfield police officer on Friday, died at University Hospital, Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino announced today.
Rasheed Cherry, 17, of East Orange was shot on Friday night after he opened fire at a crowded carnival. He was pronounced dead at 12:26 p.m. today.
The incident is being investigated by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Professional Standards Bureau and the Bloomfield Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit.

45 replies on “Suspect in Bloomfield Carnival Shooting Dies”

  4. I was speaking more in the karmic sense. In any event, young Rasheed bears complete responsibility for his fate.
    I suppose we can take pity on young Rasheed that instead of realizing his full positive potential as a human being that he instead made very bad choices that caused him to cut short his life at such a young age. And although I do not support the death penalty in practice, there is something fleetingly reassuring in the knowledge that there will be forever one less gun-toting young thug stalking innocent bystanders. At least, for as long as it takes for another to replace him.

  5. When is it a communities responsibility to be held accountable for the actions of its members? During the first years of the AIDS crisis, the gay community was taunted and told to change their “ways”. The behavior of that community was challenged and in most cases, it was changed if people wanted to live. When do we hold any community responsible for the actions of its youth?
    Where are the parents? Where is the outrage within the communities over the actions of the many youths? When will someone speak up and stop blaming the police, blaming society, and look within? The time is long overdue for this.

  6. Kevin – rest assured that if the victim was black and the cop white, Al Sharpton will be launching a full investigation immediately and perhaps marching down Bloomfield Avenue.

  7. Yes, where is the outrage?
    I’ll go out on a somewhat of shaky limb and suggest that this young man and his thug like behaviors was probably known to more than a few people: family, friends, neighbors, and school staff. Unfortunately, the law often guides where, when and how a compassionate person can intervene. It may take a village to raise a child but this concept is often in conflict with individual and family responsibilities.
    Yet, I continue to maintain that when the family structure breaks down education is the only hope for most young people. When Governor Christy called Newark public schools “absolutely disgraceful” and claimed the 5 million children are “trapped in failing public schools” I cheered.
    Generally, I am in the camp of the individual vs. the state when it comes to freedom and responsibilities. But every now and then I’ve speculated that instead of marriage laws there should be childbearing and rearing laws with all the penalties and consequences when the contract is broken. Maybe then parties who take on the awesome responsibilities of parenthood will choose to do so with more care.

  8. I hope DagT that when you finished cheering Governor Christie’s statement, you then got on the phone to his office to let him know that there are 1.4 million students in ALL NJ public schools, not 5 million. And certainly not 5 million in Newark.
    And by all means, most public school students in NJ are not “trapped” in a school that is “failing”.

  9. Correction taken regarding numbers but not the CONCEPT!!!
    Come on croiagusanam, give just the tiniest of bits, maybe an inch. It’s simple. Some schools in NJ rot. Now shake your head and say yes!!
    The kids in many Abbott districts are sacrificial lambs offered to the great political gods who damn them to an inferior existence. It’s quite possible that Rasheed Cherry was one of the offerings.
    NJ schools excel in academic accomplishments in many locals. I KNOW THAT. But in no way, let me repeat, NO WAY, does that excuse the acceptance of anything less for even ONE child.
    So when I cheer the Governor’s statement, I’d expect an intelligent being like you to go along the hosanna.

  10. BTW I used his numbers incorrectly. My bad! Christy referred to not only kids in failing Newark schools but the parents and kids trapped in schools and systems without

  12. It’s useful to bear in mind that Rasheed Cherry (who could not be named as a suspect because he was a minor, but can be named now that he’s just a corpse) will always legally remain but a suspect now. We don’t even have the slightest idea, if he in fact fired into that crowd, why. Nor, despite some giant assumptively tacit leaps above, do we know if he even had priors or was a gang member.
    I don’t then think Rasheed’s death is a worthy occasion for, uh, “outrage.” Whatever path he may have set himself on, it was done when he was very young. Nor do we know anything about the familial and social environments he grew up in.
    Indeed, it’s probably better that we don’t know any of these things. Not knowing them makes the usual run of Baristanet-type speculation that much easier to offer up. (Pork Roll, for example, suggests above to the effect, mystifyingly to me, that Rasheed’s death was at least some form of karmic justice.)
    I simply hope most will agree that this entire matter has been a waste. Particularly of verbal speculation, when words, perhaps, should instead have failed all of us. None of this brings Kareem back, of course (even to face justice), or makes his victim heal any faster or provides any real understanding of what (if in fact anything) led up to Friday night’s shootings. Which the officer who shot him will now have to deal with for the rest of his own life.
    There is thus no greater lesson here for any of us, which may turn out to be the most useful possible lesson of all.

  13. A vicious punk with no respect for human life opens fire on a crowd of innocent people. A police officer returns fire and subdues the felon. The malefactor later dies from his injuries and the young man he shot will live to see another day.
    One less armed sociopath on the streets sounds ok by me. I hope they give the cop a medal for heroism.

  14. I’m having a hard time feeling sorry for this guy. Shooting into a crowd at a carnival is a step above “misguided youth” status.
    He is in a better place… for us.

  17. “But every now and then I‚Äôve speculated that instead of marriage laws there should be childbearing and rearing laws with all the penalties and consequences when the contract is broken.”
    Alas it’s only a dream. So many children having children being raised by grandmothers who are in their 30’s and absent any kind of fathering. Add a pop subculture that values misogyny, nihilistic murder, multiple women/pregnancies by males and that perceives education as white man’s poindexter “arithmatrick”.
    This despite Newark spending 24k per student.
    It’s values stupid!

  18. Please explain how “The kids in many Abbott districts are sacrificial lambs offered to the great political gods…” when they get 60% of all state funding for public schools?

  19. The police are meant to protect AND serve; they provided both services here. I would like to know the dead boy’s motive for shooting into a crowd, but I don’t expect it to be a reasonable one. So i’ll side with Mellonbrush2 on this one.
    i guess he had it comin to him.

  20. Live my the sword, die by the sword, in this case a gun.
    I don’t feel an ounce of pity or compassion for this guy. I’m saving that for the victim.

  22. Mrs. Martta, while you’re certainly welcome to save your compassion for “the victim,” he too may turn out to be a gangbanger or malefactor of some sort. So perhaps it’d behoove you to wait until the police investigation of this entire sordid matter is completed, no?
    MellonBrush, you in turn sound especially bloodthirsty today. (Your misbegotten appreciation last week for the “bikers” who gave what-for to a motorist obviously didn’t slake this aspect of you.)
    Yes, too, the police are here to protect and serve. But not usually to shoot people. Nor do they get many chances to do so, thank goodness, and I don’t think one has to be anywhere near Al Sharpton politically to have that view. In any case, the policeman who put paid to Rasheed Cherry now has to live with the consequences of his act, which may not prove too easy for him if previous studies of even irreproachably justified police shootings are any guide.
    I sometimes forget how many posters here have never been in the armed forces or served as cops, have thus never had to fire a shot in self-defense or as part of their jobs. But it shows above. And it’s not easy, really. It bothers me that so many posters act as if it is. That was my basic point, even if Rasheed Cherry was the most unredeemable punk imaginable. Violence corrupts us all, including armchair spectators and posters. One should not have to be a pacifist to realize this, either.

  24. Cathar,
    You need to get over yourself. Seriously.
    Just because you were in the military and many of us were not doesn’t mean squat to me, and if you want to take exception to this, you know where I live.
    Society is well rid of Mr. Cherry.
    Get back on your rowing machine and pump some 500’s.
    Sheesh!

  25. Thank God for this officer who acted decisively to take out this murderer. Cathar – the kid was unloading a gun at a crowded carnival!! We are lucky the officer acted as quickly and accurately as he did and that no one else was injured in the crossfire. This officer is a hero and for you to insinuate that he acted inappropriately, “he will have to deal with the consequences of his act,” is repugnant and shameful. This officer is an example to his peers and a hero to his community, especially those at the carnival. I will pray for this officer as I understand that shooting anyone, even the most deserving as in this case, is never ever easy or without emotional turmoil, but thank God he had the training and the courage to do what needed to be done.

  26. That you would excoriate cathar for noting that the officer would have to deal with the consequences of his act, while in the same post you note that the officer will undergo “emotional turmoil” indicates that you have the reading comprehension of a six year old.
    A dim six year old.
    You are saying the exact same thing that cathar said.

  27. no, dim wit. i realize that Cathar is speaking about emotional repercussions, but he is at the same time insinuating that lethal force may have been excessive and we shouldn’t judge without knowing all the facts etc etc etc. you are the moron my friend.

  28. This young man became a wanton killer in his own mind before he shot into the crowd, and the root causes will be argued over and over. Once he produced a gun and began firing it towards people, he ceased being a human being and became a dangerous attacking animal. This BPD officer acted with great positive effect by quickly ending the attack, preventing further bloodshed, and should be commended. As has been said, he will have to deal with the fact of taking a life for the rest of his life, despite having little choice in the situation.
    Though the family and peers of Mr. Cherry share blood guilt in his death, the injury to Mr. Cherry’s shooting victim, and the trauma of the folks at the carnival, they deserve some basic human compassion as well. At the same time, I hope some good can come out of this, such as a charged, energetic effort to end the thug subculture and remove the cultural distortions that perpetuate it.

  29. Yes, MellonBrush, I “know where you live.” So what? I also know that were I to show up there with a six pack of Samuel Smith’s Famous Taddy Porter it’d go unshared. My point to you was simply that even reveling in the demise of a bad guy ill befits all of us. So if you take exception to this observation and head over here to remind me of this, at least bring along a six-pack of the NC delicacy called “CheerWine,” which Kings now carries. That, I’m positive, we can share. (It also, hint hint, goes down especially well with pizza.)
    mtcsince1972, you simply sound beyond the pale of reason. And the officer at the carnival did not take out a “murderer.” For that appellation to apply, a murder actually has to occur.
    A friend of mine who used to be an ATF agent suggests that the carnival incident, which in Baristaville terms suddenly seems to have become a local equivalent to the nastiness behind the OK Corral, was likely a dispute of some sort twixt gangbangers (who, after all, traditionally care little about anyone else caught in the crosfire). As he says, “Choirboys were probably not involved on either side of the shooting,” and this is from a man who once happily peppered bikers with buckshot during a raid (though not the kinds of bikers MellonBrush commended last week for their roadside “justice”).
    It does not matter at this point whether or not the Bloomfield officer acted inappropriately. Who knows?, and sorting this out is a task corrctly assigned to Internal Affairs investigators. What remains most dismaying is how quickly some posters (including one who rushes very foolishly to term another a “dim wit”) seem to have blood in their eyes over this matter. Whereas even Wyatt Earp after the famed gunfight in Tombstone had the grace and good sense to keep his mouth shut about it for the rest of his life.

  30. Ok, I re-read cathar’s posts (only because i rarely disagree with anything he has posted in here) and upon further review, I believe I may have hastily reacted to your post, Cathar, and I apologize. God bless the officer, his victims and the thug’s family who all are suffering. To Rasheed – may God have mercy on your soul.

  31. Sam Smith’s Taddy porter is only sold in a four-pack. So much for your ever having purchased it, eh, Cathar?

  32. Okay, we’re all friends againnow. Let’s all sing “Kumbaya!” (And then barf in unison, the song is retch-inducing.)
    I may even be willing to pay for the CheerWine myself, if it has to come to that.

  33. and for the record, Cathar, it was the jerk aka croiagusanam (what the heck kind of name is that anyhow) that referred to me as a “dim 6 year old.” Not to say that “he started the name calling, but…well…he started it” : )

  34. Actually, Tommyboy, I may just have imbibed so much of it that I forgot, since I was well in my cups, how it was packaged. Have you ever gotten to that point yourself with anything other than Hostess cupcakes?

  36. It does not matter at this point whether or not the Bloomfield officer acted inappropriately. Who knows?
    Oh, well didn’t you pretend to, when you wrote in a previous thread:

    I don’t know that I feel all that reassured by police procedures which entail, at least as described, shooting back into a crowd at someone who has just himself fired into a crowd

    So high minded you are now, cathar. And, predictably, again, you’ve managed to wedge in the old “what I’ve seen!” stuff.

  37. I can only imagine, Mike91, that the intellectual void which passes for your usual run of exceptionally predictable liberal nonsense drove you to make the nannygoat-ish post above. And thus to munching on the rhetorical equivalent of tin cans.
    But it hasn’t improved your utter lack of reading comprehension, for all your daily bleating here.

  38. I can only imagine, Mike91, that the intellectual void which passes for your usual run of exceptionally predictable liberal nonsense drove you to make the nannygoat-ish post above. And thus to munching on the rhetorical equivalent of tin cans.
    What does liberal (or conservative, for that matter) have to do with me calling out your hypocrisy? Also, you’ve got some which/that confusion. “Which” is usually only used after a comma. Check your Strunk’s. Makes you look not as erudite as you pretend to be.
    But it hasn’t improved your utter lack of reading comprehension, for all your daily bleating here.
    So some other cathar posted that then. And don’t try to hide behind the ‘as described’ phrase either. Its obvious you meant to question the officer’s actions.

  39. “What kind of name is that?”
    One that, like so much else, you will never understand.
    For the record, I said you had the reading comprehension of a rather dim six year old. You prove it by first misquoting what I said, then by copping to the fact that you misread cathar’s post. So I gather that he is no longer “repugnant and shameful”?
    You’re not really covering yourself with glory here, mtcsince72. And what kind of a name is that, anyway? Might I suggest changing it to mtcIQ72?

  40. What makes a 17 year old boy maim, murder, rape etc etc.? When I was 17 I was dreaming about boys, I was getting ready for college, I was going to rock concerts, occasionally drinking beer when I could find someone to buy it, and sneaking a cigarette here and there.
    What’s the difference between my childhood and this 17 year olds? Well, I can only tell you about mine. I had two parents who loved me, my siblings, and each other. They valued God, family, education, honesty, and hard work.
    Where would I be today if I grew up in Garden Spires (housing project)in Newark? When a child is consistently exposed to violence, degradation, and hatred they usually don’t become model citizens.

  41. MMM The students in Abbott districts have no control over monies spent. They are the unfortunate victims of poor administration and educational abuse!

  42. I sense, Mike91, that whenever you’re forced to dip into Strunk’s (did you borrow someone else’s copy? avail yourself of a public library?), it is only, as above, to self-confirm your own humorlessness.
    And don’t ever try to hide behind your rote liberalism, since it hardly leavens you.

  43. Relatively new to this community site I’ve been amused by the verbal jousting, bomb throwing insults, combined with grammar and spell checking. I really must freshen up my rank out vocabulary and watch my words.

  44. Cathar,
    You promulgate a common misconception about road bikers – you know, the chaps with the ‘silly outfits’. You should know, and probably already do, that many of today’s automobile operators fail to recognize that the operators of these two wheeled vehicles have all the same ‘rights to the road’ as automobile drivers.
    I’ve been spit at, had cans and firecrackers thrown at me, have been nearly hit on numerous occasions by dimwits and outright malicious drivers. I am extremely careful when on the road and would expect the same courtesy from other drivers. Sadly, many view cyclists as fair game for abuse or fail to realize that they deserve a modicum of courtesy whilst pursuing their right to use the road.
    When the two cyclists told me their tale about administering a beating to a male driver of a car that intentionally tried to hit them I was gratified to hear it. If you think this makes me a vicious person then think back to your ‘days in Nam’ when you felt someone was trying to kill you. I bet you wanted to kill them first, right?
    Most drivers are courteous and safe around cyclists. For those who aren’t or who would endanger our lives for a ‘bit of fun’, be advised that you may suffer the consequences of being an a’hole. Most of these guys who cycle one to two hundred miles a week can wipe the asphalt with your sorry a**es.
    Dag!

  45. MellonBrush, there is a great (I might even add “generation-spanning”) deal of difference between self-defense against armed VC and NVA cadres and a few bicyclists (I would never seriously anoint such yuppieish poseurs with the sacred term of “bikers”) beating up on a motorist. Yes, too, it still astounds that you can defend this sort of thing, since I’m reasonably sure you’re not sociological kin to Sonny Barger here.
    Nor, if it comes to that, do I much recall too many incidents where bicyclists have been harassed or sideswiped by motorists. In my personal experience it’s usually the other way around, not least because so few bicyclists seem to pay real attention to the rules of the road or even to oncoming traffic in either direction. I don’t know, maybe guys in spandex suddenly taken themselves way too seriously when they start pedalling?
    So calm down. This is not worth M-60’s at 100 yards. And the CheerWine (or better yet, Biltmore ginger ale also from down NC way, which comes in a regular pretty spicy version or a special “hot” one) can still be on me. We could even ask Dag in, especially if he’d pay for the pizzas.

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