On the evening of December 12, 2014, a dispute in Elizabeth, New Jersey, ended in the tragic death of 25-year-old Bilal Fullman. The Woodbridge man was in the first-floor hallway of a building at the Oakwood Plaza housing complex on Parker Road at approximately 8:35 p.m. when he was fatally shot. An investigation would later reveal that he had been cornered and shot eight times.
Police were called to the scene, where they found Fullman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds; he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
The investigation into the shooting was a joint effort between the Union County Homicide Task Force and the Elizabeth Police Department. Their work quickly identified three local men as suspects: Gregory Torres, Jamar Mosby, and Firicin Augustin. The investigation determined that the three men had an ongoing dispute with Fullman, which culminated in the fatal confrontation in the hallway of the housing complex.
Within a month of the shooting, in January 2015, authorities arrested and charged both Jamar Mosby and Firicin Augustin in Elizabeth. The third suspect, Gregory Torres, had fled the state in an attempt to evade capture. His time as a fugitive came to an end over two months after the murder when members of the U.S. Marshals Service and the Virginia State Police apprehended him near Richmond, Virginia. All three men were charged with first-degree murder, and their bail was set at one million dollars each.
Following a three-month trial, a Union County jury returned guilty verdicts against two of the defendants in April 2018. Gregory Torres was convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon. Prosecutors presented evidence that Torres had previously stated his intention to kill Fullman and later admitted his involvement to several people. Firicin Augustin was found guilty of second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon. Torres faced a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for his role in the murder.
