If anyone is deserving of national sympathy and support, it would be Natasha Aeriel. In one of Newark, New Jersey’s bloodiest attacks, she sustained a gunshot wound to the face, was sexually assaulted and then watched her brother and two friends get murdered. Yet, three years later, Aeriel graduated from Delaware State University.
Three years ago, Aeriel was hanging out at a Mount Vernon schoolyard with her brother, Terrance, 18, and their two best friends, Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, both 20, when they encountered an unfathomable level of violence even for Newark. All were innocent college students.
Aeriel testified that her attackers tried to cut her neck with a machete before shooting her in the face. She said she then heard gunshots and saw her brother and friends disappear from view.
Aeriel returned to school just five months after the shooting and finished her degree just two semesters behind schedule.
The graduation ceremony took place just days before the conviction Monday of Rodolfo Godinez, the first of six defendants charged with the triple slaying and robbery. —terry shropshire
