On a summer evening in Piscataway, New Jersey, the life of 24-year-old Henry Stevenson Jr. was cut short by violence. On Friday, June 16, 2017, at approximately 7:00 p.m., police responded to reports of a shooting in the vicinity of West Third Street and Poplar Place. Upon their arrival, they discovered Stevenson lying on the ground, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. He was a male. Emergency services transported him to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The investigation into the homicide was conducted by the Piscataway Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office. In a tragic turn of events, the investigation led them to a familiar name. Less than a week after the shooting, on Thursday, June 22, 2017, authorities arrested the victim's own brother, Jahneel Stevenson, also of Piscataway.
He was taken into custody and charged with murder, possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose in connection with the fatal shooting of his brother.
This was not the first time the Stevenson brothers had been involved with law enforcement. In a prior incident in 2015, both Jahneel and Henry Stevenson Jr., along with their father, Henry Stevenson Sr., were arrested in connection with a stabbing that occurred in the same neighborhood as the shooting. In that earlier case, Jahneel Stevenson had faced a charge of attempted murder. The investigation into Henry Stevenson Jr.'s death continued after his brother's arrest, with authorities asking anyone with information to come forward.
