Three days after 23-year-old Aljaron Stubbs was gunned down just steps from his Elizabeth home, his grieving girlfriend of five years is opening up about the senseless violence that stole her partner and left her grappling with lifelong trauma. The woman, who has requested anonymity to protect her safety, spoke exclusively to The Tribune, detailing the chaotic moments when bullets began flying and the lasting nightmare that has followed the attack.
The tragedy unfolded shortly before 3 p.m. on a Thursday last week, near the intersection of Antigua Street and Barbados Avenue. On that day, Stubbs—who had been released on bail pending trial for multiple pending charges including conspiracy to murder and murder—had just wrapped up a court appearance. His girlfriend, who was on a lunch break from work, was alongside him as the pair headed toward their home.
When they noticed an unfamiliar vehicle parked near their residence—one that had also been spotted loitering in the area earlier that morning—they made the split-second decision to seek shelter in a nearby neighbor’s yard instead. But their attempt to avoid danger came too late: gunmen traveling in a pale-colored Japanese-made car pulled into the neighborhood and immediately opened fire on the couple.
Stubbs’ girlfriend told reporters she immediately dropped to the ground and began praying as bullets rang out around her. It was only when she stood up moments later to check on Stubbs that she realized the attack had already been fatal. “By the time as I get up and ask him ‘baby, you okay?’ That was it. He was then gone,” she recalled. In the chaos of the shooting, she did not even notice immediately that a bullet had grazed her own back.
In the three days since the murder, the trauma has already upended the young woman’s life. She told reporters she struggles to sleep through the night, constantly woken by vivid nightmares of the attack, and often finds herself reliving the shooting during waking hours. She has stepped away from her job temporarily to focus on processing her grief, describing a constant state of disorientation and anguish in the days after the attack. “In the morning, when it first happened, I felt like I was going crazy,” she said.
The pain of Stubbs’ violent death has hit especially hard, she explained. “I know everybody gotta go one day, but it’s how you go. That’s the part that hurt me. If he had gone to bed and didn’t wake up, I would have felt better,” she said. Stubbs’ relatives have also been unable to process the sudden loss; multiple family members became inconsolable at the crime scene and had to be restrained by responding police officers.
While court records confirm Stubbs faced serious pending charges—including the 2023 murder of Jorge Cuevas and conspiracy to murder Detective Sergeant Raphael Miller, plus additional charges of attempted murder and firearms possession—he had repeatedly denied all allegations. His girlfriend acknowledged that Stubbs was not a perfect man, but insisted he had been working to turn his life around in the months before his death. She also pushed back against constant police scrutiny he faced after his release on bail, noting “Every other week, coming to lock him up and bothering him. Ain’t nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s innocent until proven guilty.”
Before the shooting, the unemployed 23-year-old had been making concrete plans for a new, law-abiding future: he had told his girlfriend he planned to open a car wash business the following month, and purchase three motorbikes to rent out for extra income. The couple was also getting ready to celebrate their sixth relationship anniversary in October, with plans for a professional photo shoot and a weekend of activities to mark the milestone.
The surviving victim says she has left justice for Stubbs’ killers up to a higher power, noting that “every dog got their day.” She said she will deeply miss her partner, whom she described as a quiet, easygoing person who was her safe place. The trauma of the attack has left her convinced she will never be able to form another close romantic bond: “I don’t think I could go in another relationship for as long as I live. I can’t take that,” she said. “I don’t want to get attached to anybody anymore because that was my safe place.”
Looking at old photos of the couple together still reduces her to tears, so she has tried to avoid keeping those mementos out where she will see them. “Every now and then, like looking at our pictures and stuff like that, I try not to look at it, because it just made me break down and cry but, it’s really ain’t easy,” she said.
As of this report, law enforcement has not made any arrests in connection with Stubbs’ murder. According to Tribune records, the killing brings the total number of murders recorded in the country so far this year to 27.
