Newark buries 3 killed in schoolyard

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Mourners shed tears and showed a resolve to end the city’s deadly violence at funeral services Saturday for three college-age friends who were lined up against a schoolyard wall and killed by shots to the head.

Mayor Cory A. Booker was interrupted by applause at Metropolitan Baptist Church as he urged residents to help fight the city’s alarming murder rate.

“We need to raise our children,” he said at the service for Dashon Harvey, 20.

Three people have been arrested in connection with the three Aug. 4 slayings, two of them juveniles, and police Saturday announced a warrant for a fourth person.

Saturday was a day of mourning in the city, with funerals for Harvey, 18-year-old Terrance Aeriel and 20-year-old Iofemi Hightower.

The friends were shot on the playground of an elementary school last weekend during an apparent robbery attempt. All three were ordered to kneel in front of a wall, then shot in the back of the head, authorities have said. Terrance Aeriel’s sister, Natasha Aeriel, was shot in the head near a set of bleachers but survived and helped investigators identify a suspect.