In the late hours of March 6, 2020, the Greenville section of Jersey City was shattered by gunfire. Responding to a report of shots fired at approximately 11:30 p.m., police arrived on Wegman Parkway to a grim scene. There they discovered Rashawn Bethea, a 28-year-old male, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso. Despite the immediate response, Bethea was pronounced dead at the scene just fifteen minutes later, at 11:45 p.m.
The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office later confirmed that the manner of his death was a homicide.
The investigation into Rashawn Bethea's death was a collaborative effort between the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit and the Jersey City Police Department. Their work led them to a suspect, Eric Ballon, a 33-year-old man from East Orange. Just a week after the fatal shooting, on March 13, 2020, authorities located and arrested Ballon. He was apprehended without incident at the Essex County Correctional Facility, where he was already being held on unrelated charges.
Following his arrest, Eric Ballon was charged with the murder of Rashawn Bethea. In addition to the murder charge, he also faced charges for possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. The investigation and subsequent arrest brought a swift, though not final, development in a case that marked the first homicide in Jersey City for that year. The community was left to mourn the loss of a young man as the legal process against the accused began to unfold.
