On Monday evening in Jersey City, New Jersey, two people on a moped drove past a group outside a residential building on Wilkinson Avenue and threw sulfuric acid on them. Six people were injured. Three of them are teenagers. A 21-year-old woman was transferred to a burn unit with second-degree burns to her face and scalp. The other five victims are in stable condition.
One minor has been arrested. Charges are pending. The investigation is ongoing.
This was not random. Police say the attack was targeted — connected to an earlier altercation. Someone made a deliberate decision to obtain sulfuric acid, get on a moped, find these people, and throw it on them. Three of the victims are children.
Acid attacks are among the most premeditated and savage forms of violence a person can inflict. Second-degree burns to the face and scalp cause severe pain, lasting disfigurement, and profound psychological trauma that does not heal when the skin does. The 21-year-old now in a burn unit, the teenagers who were burned on a Monday evening — they deserved none of this.
Jersey City Mayor James Solomon has directed the JCPD to use its full resources and work around the clock to find everyone responsible. We are holding him to that.
We're calling on Jersey City police and the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office to arrest all remaining suspects immediately and charge everyone involved — including the arrested minor — with the most serious offenses available under New Jersey law. Six victims. Three of them teenagers. Justice cannot wait.