SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A corrections officer from Monmouth Junction was fatally shot during a barbecue on July 5, according to a statement on the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office website.
Katrina Owens, 37, was shot and killed in the vicinity of Columbia Avenue in Newark following a dispute.
The suspect wanted for questioning in connection with her murder died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound later that day.
Allen Barron, 21, of Pemberton and Rahway, encountered officers from the Richmond Police Department in Virginia and the U.S. Marshals Service, according to a press release from acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray. Investigators believe he took his life outside the Greyhound bus terminal in Richmond.
The preliminary investigation indicated that Owens was attending a July 4 barbecue in the Newark/East Orange area when a dispute occurred. After an initial encounter that night, Barron took Owens’ truck. He then came to the Columbia Avenue area and shot and killed her, and then fled the state, the press release stated. The location of the barbecue has not been determined yet.
The married mother of three became a corrections officer in 2003. At the time of her death, she was employed at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, according to the press release.
There were three other shootings in Newark around the same time on July 5, two of which were fatal.