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Blackshear, who lived on Wainwright Avenue,is listed in city police records as a member of the Bloods.
"We got information that he used to go there every day to purchase drugs," said Detective Capt. Robert Tedder, head of the Criminal Investigations Bureau.
"The information we’re getting is that he pulled up and got out of the car, and he was having a verbal argument with someone out there," Tedder said.
"As he turned and walked away, the gunman started firing several shots. He was running away, and he was struck numerous times.
"So we’re trying to determine who he was purchasing his drugs from, who was out there," he said. "So we don’t want to be too quick to say it was definitely gang-related; however, we’re looking into that."
Witnesses told investigators Blackshear was gunned down by a 5-foot-6, 140-pound black man aged 22 to 25, Tedder said.
The gunman was said to be wearing a black leather jacket over a black shirt and jeans, along with a black skull cap and tan work boots.
Blackshear took at least one shot in the back and was hit by as many as five other bullets, Tedder said.
Because officers found no bullet casings at the scene, they think Blackshear was shot with the .38-caliber handgun (which doesn’t spit out casings).
Officers responding to a report of shots fired and a man struck found Blackshear dead on the ground.
The murder was the third in Trenton since early Friday morning, when two young men were executed within 30 minutes in what investigators think were gang-related slayings.
The Trenton slayings come on the heels of the discovery Thursday in Hamilton of a city woman shot several times in what is believed to be another gang execution. She once dated another Blood who was murdered.
After the Friday slayings, many off-duty officers were called in to work over the weekend in an effort to keep the peace in the city.
The extra officers were on the streets again yesterday on the lookout for further outbreaks of gang warfare.
"We’re up to 17 murders this year," Tedder said. "Right now we’re looking into seeing whether any of those last week are related.
"When a gang member gets killed, we’ll look to see immediately if it’s gang-related," he said.
"But we can’t jump to conclusions, because a lot of times it turns out to be that even though they’re gang members, the murder is totally unrelated to gangs.
"For example, he could be a gang member arguing with somebody over a girl, or [involved in] a drug deal gone bad."
New Jersey Department of Corrections records show that Blackshear, who used the alias Brian Little, was in prison between November 2003 and November 2005 on drug dealing and stolen property charges.
