Gang Member Charged For Shooting 'Rival Gang Members' In Jersey City: Prosecutor

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A member of the Rutgers neighborhood street gang in Jersey City has been charged for his "role in shooting rival gang members," prosecutors announced Thursday night.

Micah Reid, 33, also known as “Nips,” 33, of Jersey City was charged one count of violent crime in aid of racketeering activity and one count of discharging of a firearm during a crime of violence, said the office of U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.

Many of shootings of young men in Jersey City over the last several decades have been blamed on gang rivalries. Earlier this year, 11 members of the Marion Gardens street gang were indicted for various crimes, and later this year, 24 people were indicted whom the IRS said were members and associates of the "Booker T street gang" near the Booker T Washington Housing Complex.

On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office called Reid "a high-ranking member and associate of the Rutgers neighborhood street gang, which operates in the area of Triangle Park in Jersey City. The gang has historically engaged in retaliatory acts of violence against rival neighborhood street gangs."

The rivals operate in the areas of the Salem Lafayette Apartments and the area of Wilkinson Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Martin Luther King Drive, and Wegman Parkway, prosecutors said.

They said that on Oct. 1, 2023, Reid, driving a stolen vehicle, shot at members and associatesof rival street gangs who were exiting a nightclub on Culver Avenue in Jersey City.

In total, six people suffered from gunshot wounds.

Police recovered the firearm used in the shooting from Reid’s home while executing a search warrant, prosecutors said.

He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on the violent crime in aid of racketeering charge, and a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison on the firearm offense, which must run consecutively to any other sentence imposed, prosecutors said.

Both offenses carry a maximum fine of $250,000.

The investigation was conducted as part of the Jersey City Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), prosecutors said. The VCI was formed in 2018 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Jersey City Police Department, to combat violent crime in and around Jersey City.

"Street gangs" have plagued Jersey City for some time. Back in 2022, a man admitted in court that his role an attempted gang shooting injured a 12-year-old bystander. READ MORE: Jersey City Man Admits Gang Shooting That Injured 12-Year-Old

You can read the complaint about Reid here.