An 18-year-old man who grew up in an upper middle class neighborhood in East Orange, N.J. was charged Monday in the shooting of two Delaware State University students.
Loyer D. Braden was charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment, as well as a gun charge, according to court documents. A man at Braden’s home in East Orange who identified himself only as a family member said Braden was a freshman at Delaware State.
Braden appeared Monday afternoon before a justice of the peace and was ordered held on $75,000 secured bond. He was ordered to stay away from the victims and the university.
Nathaniel Pugh III and Shalita Middleton, two 17-year-old students from Washington, D.C., were wounded early Friday in the attack. Middleton suffered serious abdominal injuries from two gunshots. Pugh was shot once in the ankle.
Braden was also accused of firing at a third student, James Richmond, according to the documents describing the reckless endangerment charge.
The shootings followed a fight Tuesday between Braden and one of the victims in a university parking lot, according to a heavily redacted affidavit by Lt. Donald Baynard of the Delaware State University police department. The victim received a small cut under his lip, and he spit saliva and blood on Braden’s face, the affidavit said.
The dispute boiled over again late Thursday when Braden and someone else approached one of the victims as the victim waited in line for food at the on-campus Village Cafe. They argued about the earlier fight, and while the argument was diffused, Braden remained “very angry,” the affidavit said.
