‘My friend died right in my arms,’ South Jersey man says of shooting at birthday party
Another man was killed while waiting outside the house in his car, Donte Benns said.
A day after his 29th birthday party ended in bloodshed, Donte Benns struggled to make sense of it all.
As he celebrated with friends at his home in Edgewater Park on Sunday, bullets flew through the door and walls, killing his friend Marcus Thompson, 29, of Willingboro. Outside, a second friend, James Gist III, 29, of Westampton, was shot to death in his car.
Benns said he has “no idea” who fired the shots.
“Because we was all in the house. Nobody had any beef with nobody,” he said in an interview Monday. “This must have been a random act. Two of my friends I call my brothers were killed.”
The birthday party, hosted by his family, started about 8:30 Saturday night at Benns’ home on the 200 block of Dogwood Road. About 12:55 a.m. Sunday, he and his friends were “dancing, laughing, eating food, enjoying life” with music playing in the background when what sounded like fireworks but turned out to be bullets “started hitting in the house,” he recalled.
“All of my friends started ducking,” he said. “Me and Marcus were just standing, looking at each other” in the kitchen. “Next thing I know, I seen him fall back. He got hit. I was telling him, ‘Marcus, Marcus, are you OK? I’m going to call 911.’”
After leaving the room to make the call, Benns said he returned to the kitchen, where “my friend died right in my arms.”
He said investigators told him they found 23 shell casings outside, but he didn’t know how many bullets went into his home.
Gist, killed outside in his car, was waiting for Benns and others to join him and head to a bar where they could continue the party, he said.
Gist and Thompson were his lifelong friends and the three grew up together in Willingboro, Benns said.
Edgewater Park Township police were called to the home just before 1 a.m. Sunday and found both victims dead at the scene.
The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and police said the motive for the shootings remained under investigation and no arrests had been made.
Gist’s father, James Gist Jr., declined to comment Monday when reached by phone. A woman who answered a home number listed for Thompson also didn’t want to speak.
Anyone with information on the shootings is asked to call Burlington County Central Communications at 609-265-7113, or send an email to tips@co.burlington.nj.us.