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Flanked by teary police officers and her weeping mother, who held up a picture of her daughter, authorities Wednesday announced an arrest in the shooting death of a 9-year-old girl in Trenton.
Isiah Roberts, 19, is charged with murder, aggravated assault and gun violations in the killing of Sequoya Bacon-Jones, who was playing in a courtyard with her brother and other children when gunfire rang out and a stray bullet hit her, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri said.
“If this isn’t a call, and if this isn’t the rallying point for this idiotic and senseless violence to stop, I don’t know what is,” said Onofri, who at times had to choke back tears during the Wednesday morning press conference.
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Sequoya died Friday night in Kingsbury Square when a fight between two women over Facebook posts turned deadly, Onofri said.
The women had gone to the courtyard to fight and at some point, Roberts, who is the brother of one of the women, got into an altercation with another man, Onofri said. That’s when, according to the prosecutor, Roberts opened fire, with at least one bullet striking Sequoya in the upper body.
Other children could have been struck too, were it not for a “hero” resident of the surrounding apartments who ushered the kids into her home and out of the line of fire, the prosecutor noted.
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When officers arrived at the scene, they found Sequoia on the ground surrounded by several people – including her mother – who were rendering aid and comforting the girl, Onofri said. The officers moved the child to their car, all the while rendering aid and comforting her as well, before she was transferred to an ambulance, Onofri said.
One of the officers hopped into the ambulance and continued to comfort Sequoya as paramedics tried to save her life, the prosecutor said. She was taken into surgery and stabilized before being transferred to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she died at 11:59 p.m., Onofri said.
“Sequoia, despite fighting bravely for her life, couldn’t overcome those injuries,” he said.
After the shooting, Roberts fled in a car, Onofri said. Several witnesses described the car, which investigators spotted shortly before noon Tuesday in Hamilton Township, he added.
As officers tried to pull Roberts over and before the car could come to a complete stop, he hopped out of the passenger’s side and ran into a wooded area, leading to a “lengthy foot pursuit,” Onofri said.
Officers from several agencies searched the area and arrested Roberts around 12:45 p.m. as he entered the Delaware River in an apparent attempt to swim across into Pennsylvania, Onofri said.
It was not immediately clear if Roberts had retained an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
“It’s often been said that it takes a village, and this case proves that to be true. Many area residents called 911, helped to care for Sequoya, provided information and came forward to help detectives apprehend Roberts,” the prosecutor said.
Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, who was in attendance for the press conference, said he remembered Sequoya curtseying to him as she attended a recent father-daughter dance with her grandfather.
“Today is a sad and angry day in the City of Trenton,” Gusciora said. “It’s sad because we lost an innocent child, and we’re angry because of how senseless this has become, and all too common.”
Sacha Bacon-Jones, Sequoya’s mother, remembered her daughter as a girl who loved school and bringing joy to others.
“She came into this world fighting,” she said. “She left this world fighting. But she loved to live, she loved to make people laugh, she loved to make people smile. You had to love her.”
Bacon-Jones said Sequoya also left behind an older brother and sister. She spoke about the difficulty of sleeping in the room next to her daughter’s, knowing she can no longer look forward to Sequoya knocking on the door to tell her she had to go to school.
“My baby was about to be on top of the world, and now she can’t be because of stupid Facebook stuff. I don’t get it. I really don’t get it,” Bacon-Jones said.
