Two killed, four wounded in Mother's Day shooting in Paterson, New Jersey

Gunfire on Mother’s Day night turned a busy corner in Paterson’s Wrigley Park section into a crime scene, leaving two men dead and four others wounded outside a liquor store near Rosa Parks Boulevard and Godwin Avenue.

Passaic County prosecutors and the Paterson Police Department said officers responded at about 8:26 p.m. on May 10 and found six people with gunshot wounds. All six were rushed to Saint Joseph’s University Medical Center, while a seventh person left the scene on their own, officials said.

Authorities identified the dead as a 43-year-old Paterson man and a 29-year-old Paterson man. The four surviving victims, all Paterson residents, were reported to be in stable condition. Their names have not been released.

The shooting cut through a holiday evening and deepened the grief for families already facing an abrupt and violent loss. The location has also drawn attention beyond the immediate block, with Rosa Parks Boulevard and Godwin Avenue described as one of Paterson’s most violent street corners. That makes the episode more than a single burst of violence; it raises fresh concern about whether the area has become a recurring danger point for residents and businesses.

Investigators have not publicly released information about a suspect or a motive. In the early hours of a shooting investigation, prosecutors are typically working to reconstruct the sequence of events through witness accounts, surveillance video, and ballistics evidence, while hospital staff and relatives wait for updates on the wounded.

The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, led by Camelia M. Valdes, is asking anyone with information to call 1-877-370-PCPO or email tips@passaiccountynj.org. For Paterson, the questions now extend beyond who fired the shots to why so much violence keeps landing on the same streets.