On the evening of May 25, 2016, Willie Lee Major, a 37-year-old male resident of Plainfield, New Jersey, was fatally shot. The incident occurred shortly after 6:45 p.m. in the 400 block of West 4th Street. Plainfield Police Division patrol units responded to reports of gunfire and discovered Major at the scene, where he was pronounced dead. Investigations later revealed that he was an innocent bystander and not the intended target of the shooting.
The subsequent investigation, a joint
effort by the Union County Homicide Task Force, the Plainfield Police Division, the Union County Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Unit, and the Union County Police Department Ballistics Unit, led to the identification of two suspects. The shooting was determined to be a result of an ongoing feud between two local gangs, and it was believed to be in retaliation for a prior unsolved fatal shooting that had occurred two weeks earlier.
Authorities identified Diniek Forbes, 18, and Shaquille Spruiel, 23, as the individuals responsible for Willie Major's death. In June 2016, Forbes was arrested and charged with murder while he was already in custody in Middlesex County on an unrelated matter. The following month, Shaquille Spruiel was apprehended in Georgia. Both men were indicted in December 2016.
In December 2018, Diniek Forbes pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter. After a trial that concluded in June 2019, a Union County jury convicted Shaquiel Spruiel of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and two related weapons offenses. Evidence presented during the trial, including video footage, indicated that Spruiel fired the shot that killed Willie Major. For his role in the death of the innocent bystander, Spruiel was sentenced to 48 years in state prison and is required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
