Last year, Mayor W. Reed Gusciora took office mere weeks after a shooting in June in which 22 people were injured after a gunman opened fire during an art festival.
The new mayor vowed to increase police patrols at large events and conducted an extensive search for a new head of the police department but the violence has continued.
It erupted again early Saturday with a drive-by shooting in front of a bar that left 10 people hospitalized, city officials said.
The shooting followed four homicides in the past month, including the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old grandson of a mayoral aide, police officials said.
Early on Saturday morning, a crowd in front of the bar, Ramoneros Liquor and Bar on Brunswick Avenue, was enjoying a seasonable beginning to Memorial Day weekend when a dark car pulled up.
At least two gunmen fired more than 30 times into the crowd, sending people running and others diving behind parked cars for cover until the car sped away.
The police said they were exploring the possibility that the gunmen may have been motivated by road rage because witnesses reported that the vehicle’s driver kept honking in heavy traffic just before the shooting.
But Gusciora said the shooting may have also stemmed from feuding neighborhood gangs, an ongoing source of violence in Trenton.
Sheilah Coley, who has been commanding the city’s police force for less than a month, said: “We’re not saying this was road rage. We’re not saying it was retaliation because the truth of the matter is we just don’t know at this point.”
The victims included five men and five women between the ages of 23 and 36. Eight of them remained hospitalized Saturday evening.
Investigators have not yet identified the gunmen but they may have a lead on their vehicle, and were analyzing video footage from the scene, Coley said.