NEWARK &mdash A Newark man suffered a fatal gunshot wound in the city's South Ward yesterday afternoon, hours after the victim of a shooting earlier this month was pronounced dead just a block away at University Hospital, authorities said. Nii Sowah, 24, was sitting on the front porch of a Mapes Avenue home at 2:43 p.m. yesterday when a...
Nii Sowah, 24, of Newark, was shot trying to escape an unknown gunman on the front porch of a Mapes Avenue home today. He died at University Hospital less than an hour later.Nii Sowah, 24, was sitting on the front porch of a Mapes Avenue home at 2:43 p.m. yesterday when a lone gunman walked onto the property brandishing a gun, according to Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
The victim apparently turned to run from his assailant, but the shooter opened fire, striking Sowah once as he tried to re-enter the building, Carter said. He was taken to University Hospital and was pronounced dead at 3:09 p.m.
The Mapes Avenue address where Sowah was shot was not his home, according to Carter.
Sowah was the second victim of a Newark shooting to die inside the hospital yesterday. Earlier in the morning, Jack Sylvain, 32, of Irvington, died from injuries he suffered on Aug. 15 following a shooting at a gas station in Newark's West Ward, Carter said.
Sylvain was one of three men wounded when someone opened fire at a Getty station near Sanford Avenue and Mount Prospect Street, according to Carter, and the second to die since the incident occurred.
David Bravo, 24, of Irvington, was shot and killed on his front porch on Aug. 16 in Irvington, less than a day after he was shot in the arm and abdomen alongside Sylvain at the gas station, authorities said. A third victim, who was not identified, was treated for gunshot wounds on Aug. 15 and later released from University Hospital.
Carter said the prosecutor's office is investigating the possibility that the gas station incident was a targeted shooting, and that Bravo's death was connected to that incident.
Sowah and Sylvain's deaths mark the 12th and 13th homicides in Newark this month, nearly doubling 2009s total of only seven, according to prosecutor's office statistics.
Prosecutor's Office Chief of Detectives Anthony Ambrose acknowledged it has been a violent summer in Essex County, particularly in Newark, but added that law enforcement agencies are doing all they can to curb shooting incidents.
"It's been a very active summer in Essex County. There have been about 41 people killed in Essex by violence, with about 34 in Newark," he said. "But if it weren't for certain Attorney General's office and police department initiatives, it could have been a lot higher."
Staff writer Victoria St. Martin contributed to this report.