On the afternoon of April 16, 2024, the life of a 24-year-old Black/African American man named Nasir Tart was tragically cut short in a burst of violence. The sequence of events that led to his death began with a seemingly minor encounter at a Sunoco gas station on Blackwood-Clementon Road in Gloucester Township, New Jersey. Tart, a resident of Clementon, was with a small group when they crossed paths with 21-year-old Hasan Battie.
Surveillance footage from the gas station captured an interaction between the two men before Tart and his companions departed in a white Jeep.
Battie, however, did not leave the area. Instead, he proceeded on foot towards the nearby LaCascata housing development. Minutes later, the white Jeep carrying Tart also entered the complex. The two men encountered each other once again within the townhome community. According to court documents, what began as an altercation escalated dramatically when Battie began to chase Tart through the development. The pursuit ended when Battie fired a handgun, striking Tart near one of the buildings.
Police were dispatched to the LaCascata development around 5:27 p.m. after reports of a shooting. Upon arrival, they found Nasir Tart suffering from a gunshot wound. Despite the efforts of emergency responders, his injuries were fatal, and he was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:50 p.m. The investigation into the homicide quickly pointed detectives from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office and the Gloucester Township Police Department toward Hasan Battie as the primary suspect.
Six days after the fatal shooting, on April 22, 2024, Hasan Battie was located and apprehended in Camden by the U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force. He was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Following his arrest, Battie was remanded to the Camden County Correctional Facility to await a pretrial detention hearing. The motive for the shooting has not been publicly released by authorities.
