ASBURY PARK−A city man was killed Sept. 11 after he was shot in the back on Monmouth Avenue during a shooting that left another man injured, authorities and family members said.
The deadly gun violence happened about 7:35 p.m. on the 100 block of the street on the west side of Asbury Park, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
No other information on the killing was released by the office. However, family members identified the victim as Tyshawn Small of Asbury Park.
Duanne Small, 56, told the Asbury Park Press that his 35-year old cousin Tyshawn was killed “for basically nothing.”
“My aunt is going through it because she lost her other son 10 years ago to the same thing, street violence, gun violence,” Small said. “He was a good kid. Nobody deserves that … to be shot in the back like that.”
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Duane Small blames the violence on lack of opportunities and “a lot of guns and drugs in our neighborhood.”
“This violence is going on all over,” Small said. “There is a reason why this is happening. You can come down here right now and go by the Sheffield Avenue market … (and other delis) … and you see young Black men standing out there, but you go around the area where the work is being done and you don’t see them working,” Small said.
He added “if they ain’t dying from a drug overdose, they are dying from gun violence.”
“This is the second family member I lost in the last 10 years from gun violence,” Small said. “My family is not the only ones. You got a lot of women walking around here that are afraid for their sons to be out in the streets because of gun violence.”
Small said “as a family man, I welcome the National Guard to come here” because “we need help.”
“Right now the Asbury Park Police Department, and the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office, and the Monmouth County Sheriffs can’t stop it. My cousin is like the third person that has been killed in that area in the last six months. This is a hot spot. There should be a police officer there at all times,” Small said.
Authorities are reaching out to the public for help and are urging anyone with information on the crime to call Detective Aaron Shaw of the Major Crimes Bureau of the prosecutor’s office at 800-533-7443 or Asbury Park Detective Anthony Troublefield at 732-774-1300. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office has a satellite office in the city.
St. Stephen AME Zion Church is right down the block from where the shootings occurred. Rev. Quavon Newton, the church’s pastor, said it is not the first violent death that happened behind the church.
“That reality weighs heavily on our church community,” Newton said. “But I think the community as a whole, we cannot become numb to violent deaths. It is our mission as a church, not just to be there as a place of worship, but to be present in the community,” Newton said.
Last month, St. Stephens held their second Community Day which saw over 1,200 backpacks distributed to local kids for the school year. Since then, Newton has been meeting with city officials to work on solutions that involve job opportunities and youth programs.
“We are trying to do as much as we can to spread the word that we are a safe space. We are a place that is consistently working with the community to bring about more peace,” Newton said.
The solution to gun violence requires “us all coming together — residents, churches, leaders, law enforcement, and other community organizations — working to address violence and the overall issues in our community that is potentially leading to these violent acts,” he said.
“Ensuring that there is programming, ensuring that there is access and opportunities to jobs and ensuring that there are spaces to speak freely and be mentored,” Newton said.
“What we can do is show we are working together for that overall solution,” Newton said.
“Violence does not happen in a vacuum. It is connected to poverty, to trauma, to lack of opportunity,” Newton said. “So we can address the root causes not just the symptoms.”
Charles Daye is the metro reporter for Asbury Park and Neptune, with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. @CharlesDayeAPP Contact him: CDaye@gannettnj.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Asbury Park shooting leaves man dead for ‘basically nothing’