NJ high school student fatally shot two weeks after graduation

🔴 Nicholas Edwards, 18, was shot and passed out while trying to drive away

🔴 Family said he graduated high school within the past two weeks

🔴 A reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest of those responsible

EAST ORANGE — A $5,000 reward is being offered for information in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old who just graduated high school.

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II said Nicholas Edwards, 18, of East Orange was shot early Monday evening and taken to CareWell Medical Center in East Orange around 6:55 p.m. where he was pronounced dead.

Law enforcement sources told New Jersey 101.5 Edwards was shot in the head. He lost consciousness while trying to drive away and crashed the sedan he was driving into a parked vehicle.

Stephens did not disclose a motive for the shooting. No arrests have been made.

Ten-year-old Asad Williams told CBS New York he heard a loud boom and saw black smoke coming from Edwards' vehicle. Witnesses said his friends were driving behind him and stopped to get him out of the car.

Edwards' family told CBS New York he had graduated two weeks ago. A neighbor said he was going to attend William Paterson University.

Essex County Sheriff Armando B. Fontoura said a $5,000 reward was posted for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Edwards' death.

Holiday violence in New Jersey

Five people were shot with two dead early Wednesday morning in Paterson, according to Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes. Two males from Paterson, age 17 and 26, with severe injuries from multiple gunshot wounds died at a hospital. Three other victims transported themselves to hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.

One person was killed and two injured in a drive-by shooting Monday night at the Asbury Park Gardens apartment building on Atlantic Avenue in Asbury Park, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond Santiago.

Police were called to the building around 10:30 p.m. and found the injured men, who were taken to a hospital. One of the men was pronounced dead while the other two suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to Santiago.

An 18-year-old Egg Harbor Township man was hospitalized Monday evening after being stabbed while standing with a friend on Adriatic Avenue near the Stanley S. Holmes Village housing units in Atlantic City around 6:15 p.m.

Atlantic City police said Tyler Smith, 38, of Atlantic City walked up to the victim and questioned why white people were allowed in the neighborhood before stabbing the victim.

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