2nd Man Charged With Murder In BurlCo Double Homicide: Prosecutor

EDGEWATER PARK, NJ — Two years after a double homicide in Edgewater Park, a second person has been charged with murder, the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

Officials took Yefaan Thompson, of Willingboro, into custody April 24 in Westampton. Thompson faces two murder charges for the March 2021 fatal shootings of Sadiel Gonzalez, 25, and Altarrek Bell, 18, authorities said.

Andre Price, of Willingboro, was the first person charged in the incident. He was arrested in the summer of 2021 in Virginia. Price and Thompson are both in the Burlington County Jail.

The pair shot Gonzalez and Bell on March 27, 2021, while the victims were parking their car at the Orchard Park Apartments, the prosecutor's office said. The shootings followed a confrontation earlier that evening at a water ice store in Willingboro, according to authorities. The prosecutor's office says Thompson and Price followed the victims to the complex, pulled up beside their vehicle and fired multiple shots before speeding away.

Gonzalez, who lived in the complex, was in the driver's seat, and Bell, a North Carolina resident, was in the back, authorities said. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Two other people occupied Gonzalez's vehicle during the shootings, but they weren't struck by gunfire, the prosecutor's office said. Bell used his body to shield a 10-year-old boy sitting beside him, his mother told the Courier Post in 2021.

Thompson was charged with two counts of murder (first-degree), conspiracy (first-degree), unlawful possession of a weapon (second-degree), possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose (second-degree) and aggravated assault (second-degree).

Price was charged with two counts of murder (first-degree), unlawful possession of a weapon (second-degree), possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose (second-degree) and certain persons not to possess weapons (second-degree).