Emergency Meeting Planned in Response to Shooting

The Montclair Township Council scheduled an emergency meeting tonight after a shooting injured four early Tuesday morning. 

Council members will meet with Montclair Police Department officials in a closed session starting at 6:30 p.m. at town hall. The meeting was called after a masked gunman shot three teenagers and a 20-year-old on Mission Street at around 1 a.m. today in what police are calling a targeted shooting. 

Township Manager Mark Dashield said the council has one goal tonight: "The police are going to give us a briefing on the current situation and some of the potential strategies" to combat the recent shootings in town. 

The council will then go before the public at 7:30 p.m. talk to residents about "what our plans are in terms of moving forward," said Dashield. 

You can watch what happens live during the council meeting tonight here on Patch. Click on the video above. 

Three of the victims shot on Tuesday are Montclair natives: Terill Vaxter, 20; Naji Love, 18; and Timear Haley, 18. The fourth victim is a 17-year-old girl from Newark, which police have not named because she is a minor. 

Love was shot in the chest and sustained the most serious injuries. She is on a ventilator in serious but stable condition at University Hospital in Newark, authorities said. 

Police believe the masked shooter came from behind a parked vehicle or bushes and began firing. 

According to police, the shooter was described as a slim black man, possibly with dreadlocks, about 6-feet tall wearing a white shirt. The man fled in a dark-colored car. 

According to Montclair Police, Love and Vaxter were the intended targets of a July 27 shooting on Elmwood Avenue. Both were not injured in that incident.