ACTIVIST WHO FOUGHT DRUG TRADE FOUND SLAIN IN HOME

JERSEY CITY -- Wesley J. Hall fought back -- gently -- against the drug
scourge that has debilitated his once-thriving neighborhood.

Instead of confronting drug dealers to demand they take it somewhere else,
he spoke with them calmly, telling them there are better ways they could be
spending their lives.

But Hudson County authorities say even that gentle resistance might have
been enough to get him killed. The neighborhood activist was shot to death
inside his home Wednesday in what authorities called a "bold and deliberate
assassination."

Hall, 39, was on the phone at about 2:30 p.m. when an unknown assailant
entered his apartment on Stevens Avenue, said Terrence Hull, Hudson County
first assistant prosecutor.

Using a pillow to muffle the sound, the killer shot Hall once in the head
at point-blank range. The person Hall was speaking to on the phone heard
the gunshot, Hull said.

Investigators believe the killer might have been a drug dealer angered by
Hall's activism. Relatives and friends said Hall, president of his local
block association, was trying to rid the area of drug dealers so his
10-year-old son and other children could play safely outdoors.

"I'm asking God to forgive this person," Hall's father, Wesley L. Hall,
said Thursday. "But I want him caught. With all the anger and hatred I've
got right now, I'm hurting. My son was a good kid, a loving person. He was
always willing to help somebody."

Hull said police are pursuing several leads, but had not made an arrest as
of late Thursday afternoon. They scanned tapes of the city's anti-crime
surveillance camera system, but so far have not come up with anything useful.

"But this was a busy area at 2:30 in the afternoon," Hull said. "I'm
certain somebody saw an individual leave that building."

Police appealed to the public for help in the case, asking them to call a
hot line -- (201) 915-1345. Uniformed police officers at several street
corners in the drug-plagued neighborhood leaned in to ask the drivers of
passing cars if they knew or had seen anything that might help solve the
case, as groups of idle young men scowled menacingly at passers-by from the
porches and steps of nearby houses.

As his childhood friends left the neighborhood, discouraged by crime and an
increasingly transient population, Hall stayed put and tried to make things
better. He was president of the Stevens Avenue Block Association and a
member of the Neighborhood Empowerment Council, which met with city
officials to address local concerns.

"I left this neighborhood because of the things that were going on, but he
decided he was going to stay and try to keep it going," said Jim Crocker, a
friend of Hall's since second grade. "He was always strong like that."

Hall made a strong, but low-key stand against drug dealing in his
neighborhood. He was careful to show dealers respect, even when he got none
in return, and never got in anyone's face, said his aunt, LaVivian Reid.

"He approached some people and told them there's a better way of life, and
that there's little kids here, and they shouldn't have to see this and grow
up with this," she said. "There's two ways to handle it, and he took the
non-confrontational way. He was a beautiful person who died for no reason."

Hull said investigators found several vials of a substance believed to be
cocaine spread on the floor and steps leading to Hall's apartment. He said
the assailant may have scattered the drugs there in an effort to discredit
Hall.

Hall and his father were working on getting their backyard swimming pool
open, and had just finished some wrought iron railing in front of the gray
stucco house they shared. Votive candles lined the front porch Thursday in
silent tribute. The elder Hall now plans to move.

"There's too many memories here, good and bad," he said. "But the bad ones
seem to outweigh all the good ones."