Two women were injured early Sunday morning when gunfire erupted outside an after-hours establishment in Irvington, leaving one with a graze wound and the other shot in the shoulder. Authorities said there was no immediate information about suspects or how the incident unfolded, and the investigation remains ongoing.
The shooting happened around 5:30 a.m. at 1080 Springfield Avenue, near Smith Street, according to RLS Media. Both victims were taken to University Hospital in Newark for treatment, and their injuries were considered non-life-threatening at the time of the report. ABC7 New York similarly reported that the two women suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the early-morning shooting.
Mayor Moves to Quiet Online Speculation
As word of the shooting spread, so did rumors online suggesting police had been involved in the gunfire. Irvington Mayor Tony Vauss moved quickly to shut that down, confirming to the same outlet that no police officers were involved in the incident. The clarification came as residents circulated unverified claims about what had happened at the Springfield Avenue address.
Beyond the mayor's statement, few details about the shooting have been made public. The account notes that one of the two women suffered a graze wound while the other was shot in the shoulder, but it does not identify either victim, name a suspect, or explain what led up to the gunfire.
A Separate Case Highlights the Distinction
The mayor's emphasis that no officers were involved stands in contrast to a different Irvington case that the Essex County Prosecutor's Office has been investigating: a police-involved shooting of a 15-year-old Newark juvenile. In that incident, described on the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office website, an officer discharged his weapon during a struggle at an apartment building on 21st Street, grazing the teenager in the shoulder. Both the officer and the teenager were taken to University Hospital in Newark, where they were treated and released, according to the same page.
That earlier case is unrelated to Sunday's shooting on Springfield Avenue, but it illustrates why officials in Irvington have been quick to specify when law enforcement is or is not involved in a shooting. No arrests have been announced in connection with the Springfield Avenue shooting, and the investigation is ongoing.
