Crime & Safety
NJ Teen Charged In Double Shooting That Killed Freshman To Be Tried As An Adult, Authorities Say
Willie Shuler, 17, will be waived up to criminal court in connection with the fatal shooting of Cianna Lee, authorities said.
JERSEY CITY, NJ — The 17-year-old boy charged in the fatal shooting of a Jersey City girl will be waived out of juvenile court and prosecuted as an adult, Acting Hudson County Prosecutor Wayne Mello said.
Willie Shuler, of Jersey City, has been charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon in the January shooting that killed a 15-year-old girl and injured one of her relatives, prosecutors said.
Around 11 p.m. on Jan. 18, the Jersey City Police Department responded to a shooting in the area of Martin Luther King Drive and Union Street in Jersey City, where they found two female victims with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle on Oak Street.
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The first victim, later identified as Cianna Lee, 15, of Jersey City, was brought to Jersey Shore Medical Center for treatment and pronounced dead around 1:20 a.m. on Jan. 19.
The second victim, identified as a 37-year-old female relative of Lee, was also brought to Jersey Shore Medical Center and treated for a non-fatal gunshot wound.
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According to a fundraiser started to support the family, Cianna was on her way home from a family gathering with her stepmother, Xiao Kuang, when the shooting occurred.
"I don't even know what kind of motive this person had,” Kuang later told Patch. “I can't figure out any connection."
According to a report from NJ Advance Media, Shuler, who was 16 years old at the time of the shooting, did not know Cianna Lee.
Video surveillance of the incident captured a person firing approximately nine rounds into the car where Lee and Kuang were sitting, and Shuler was later identified in the video by two witnesses, the report said.
Attorney information for Shuler was not included in the news release from the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office.
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