Mission Street Shooting Victims Also Targets of Recent Drive-By

Two of the four people wounded by a masked gunman early Tuesday morning on Mission Street were also the targets of a drive-by incident late last month, authorities said.

Three of the victims—Terill Vaxter, 20, Naji Love, 18, and Timear Haley, 18—are Montclair residents while the fourth is a 17-year-old from Newark, Deputy Chief Todd M. Conforti said.

Police believe the masked shooter came from behind a parked vehicle or bushes and began firing on the four victims at about 1 a.m., Conforti said.

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, police said.

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.

Lt. Angel Roman said the shooter's mask described in both incidents was similar.

According to Conforti, the overnight shooting on Mission Street occurred just before 1 a.m. When police arrived, they found Vaxter and Love several hundred feet from Bloomfield Avenue with gunshot wounds to the chest and arm. 

While the pair were being treated by Montclair EMS, police found the two other victims on Mission Street closer to Elmwood Avenue.

However, police are unsure why the pair were targeted, Roman said. Police believe it is not gang related. 

"It is an unfortunate incident," Conforti said. 

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

The other three are also in stable condition. Vaxter was shot in the arm, Haley in the butt and the Newark teen suffered a wound to the leg.

The shooting is still under investigation by the Montclair Police Department and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide and Major Crimes Task Force.

Tuesday's incident is the third shooting in the neighborhood since June. In addition to the Elmwood Avenue incident in late July, two people have been charged in connection with a June shooting on Mission Street where a man was wounded in the leg.