Shane A. Rouse, a Black man from Newark, was fatally shot in the head in the overnight hours of October 7–8, 2018 on the 400 block of South 15th Street. Police found him lying in the street; emergency personnel pronounced him dead and the death was classified as a homicide.

Witnesses described a lone attacker in black and a mask approaching and firing at point-blank range before fleeing. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit treated the killing as targeted. Rouse, remembered by family and friends as Baby Shane and a father of three girls, was identified publicly on October 16 as his community prepared funeral arrangements.

Detectives later executed search warrants related to a man named Sharod Massey and recovered two handguns from a safe; one gun was later matched by ballistics to the weapon used in Rouse’s murder. Massey was not charged with homicide; he was prosecuted on weapons offenses tied to the recovered guns and convicted. No one has been formally charged with killing Shane Rouse.

If anyone knew Shane or has information about what happened that night on South 15th Street, please come forward.