A man gunned down in Jersey City early Saturday morning had been convicted of a double fatal crash in 2017 and had been out of jail for just under a year after winning an appeal to get his conviction amended.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
On November 20th, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office tweeted they were investigating a fatal early morning shooting at 116 Randolph Ave. and later identified the victim as Rashaun Bell, 24, of Jersey City.
According to the New Jersey Department of Corrections, a Rashaun Bell born on March 2nd, 1997, was taken into custody on October 26th, 2018 and drug possession and leaving the scene of a fatal accident and released on November 25th, 2020.
In May of last year, the Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division amended Bell’s conviction for of second-degree leaving the scene of an accident since they believed he was charged improperly, HCV first reported.
In the opinion, the court argued that that the state should have charged Bell with aggravated manslaughter, reckless vehicular homicide, or strict liability vehicular homicide, instead of two counts of leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
On the afternoon of October 18th, 2017, Bell was driving on the Secaucus off-ramp on Routes 1 and 9 in Secaucus when he struck two boys riding a single bicycle where the road intersected with Leonard Street, the court opinion says.
One of the victims died instantly, while the other died in the hospital the following day.
A law enforcement source, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the man who was fatally shot early Saturday morning was also the person convicted of the 2017 fatal crash.
The circumstances surrounding Bell’s murder remain under investigation and the HCPO declined to comment further.
