UNION COUNTY, NJ — A Union County grand jury has returned a four-count indictment against a Somerset County man accused of carrying out a fatal gang-related shooting outside a Plainfield restaurant in 2010, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced last week.
Richard Culver, 26, of North Plainfield is charged with murder, attempted murder, and two related weapons offenses in connection with the shooting that killed 25-year-old Sahaad Monroe-McCoy, of Plainfield.
Monroe-McCoy was shot and killed and a second man, his cousin, was injured by gunfire at approximately 2:15 a.m. on December 11, 2010, at the Kennedy Fried Chicken on East Fifth Street and Park Avenue in downtown Plainfield, according to the investigation. After an intensive joint investigation by the Union County Homicide Task Force and the Plainfield Police Division, it was found that Culver, a confirmed member of the Crips street gang, had allegedly been targeting Monroe-McCoy’s cousin, who is reportedly a high-ranking member of Plainfield’s G-Shine set of the Bloods street gang.
Culver was arrested in June 2015. Convictions on murder charges commonly result in penalties of 30 years to life in state prison.
These criminal charges are mere accusations. Each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.