In the late hours of a warm August night in 2016, the Chambersburg neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey, was shattered by the sound of gunfire. On August 5th, at approximately 10:30 p.m., police were called to the area of 35 Cummings Avenue following reports of a shooting. There, they discovered 32-year-old Jonathan Jimenez lying in the street, unconscious and unresponsive.
He had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest and was rushed to Capital Health Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Jonathan Jimenez was a Hispanic male and a resident of Trenton.
Witnesses reported that the gunman, described as a Hispanic male, shot Jimenez before fleeing the scene in a vehicle with another Hispanic male. The suspects abandoned the vehicle a few blocks away on Elmer Street and escaped on foot. Investigators located the vehicle and processed it for evidence. The killing marked the city's 13th homicide of 2016.
The investigation into Jonathan Jimenez's death led to the identification and arrest of two suspects. In August 2016, Alberto A. Perez, then 37 and a resident of Trenton, was charged with murder and weapons offenses. He was already in custody at the Mercer County jail on unrelated warrants at the time the charges were filed.
Several months later, a second suspect was apprehended. In December 2016, authorities announced the arrest of 36-year-old Freilyn J. Delacruz. After warrants were issued for his arrest in August, investigators from the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, the Mercer County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Marshals Service tracked him to Mexico. Delacruz was arrested, deported, and taken into custody in Miami, Florida, to be extradited to Mercer County. He faced charges of murder and weapons offenses. Both men were held on a $750,000 bail.
