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Authorities Release Surveillance Video of Fatal Shooting of Rahway Sneaker Shop Owner

Rahway

https://youtu.be/xJVuB3aeTqk

https://youtu.be/_rxm5KwOzaw

Investigators trying to determine who was responsible for the shooting death of a 21-year-old business owner in Rahway earlier this year are requesting assistance from the public, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Wednesday.

The Prosecutor’s Office today is releasing video clips pulled from surveillance footage recorded just before and after the shooting took place in an attempt to identify the two gunmen seen therein.

Police responded to the 1500 block of Irving Street in Rahway at approximately 9:15 p.m. on Friday, February 26 to find Jamal Gaines suffering from a gunshot wound, and he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

A joint investigation involving the Prosecutor’s Office’s Homicide Task Force, the Rahway Police Department, and the Union County Sheriff’s Office’s Identification Unit revealed that two shooters with their faces obscured by fabric accessed Gaines’s sneaker store through a rear utility door, resulting in a physical struggle that culminated in the fatal shots being fired.

At that point the two suspects ran out of the building the same way they came in, after which they can be seen on surveillance footage sprinting down a rear alley, with one of the two exhibiting a pronounced limp.

The suspect with the limp appeared to be wearing dark pants, light-colored sneakers, and a dark hooded sweatshirt with a light-colored patch on the left arm. The other suspect appeared to be wearing a lighter-colored hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and brown or beige shoes.

Both brandished handguns.

Anyone with information about the shooting is being urged to contact Homicide Task Force Sgt. Michael Manochio at 908-966-2287 or Detective Sofia Santos at 908-577-4256.

The Union County Crime Stoppers also are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in this case; tips can be given anonymously by phone at 908-654-TIPS (8477), via text message by texting “UCTIP” plus a message to 274637 (CRIMES), or online at www.uctip.org.

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