Ameen Williams and Jarrad Monk were picked up an hour after the shooting, held at the State Police barracks in Buena Vista Township and charged the next day, Dec. 20. They remain in the jail, each on $1 million cash bail set by Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kane.

Williams, 28, and Monk, 26, are each charged with conspiracy to commit murder, possession of a weapon, criminal attempt to commit murder and unlawful possession of a weapon.

Vincent Aires, 38, was shot in the chest at about 2 p.m. Dec. 19 at a home in the 500 block of Railroad Boulevard in Buena Vista Township, authorities have said. Aires was rushed by helicopter to the Regional Trauma Unit at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City with a gunshot wound to the chest. A hospital supervisor would not provide information on the victim's condition at the request of his family.

It was unclear Wednesday if the shooting took place inside or outside the home in the Richland section of the township. Authorities also were not saying who they believed was the shooter. Monk and Williams were driving north on Route 42 in Camden County shortly after the shooting when State Police troopers pulled them over and took them in for questioning, authorities said.

Suspects are supposed to go before a judge to hear their rights no later than 72 hours after they are charged. However, holidays and other circumstances can also dictate when the first appearance is held as long as it is within a "reasonable amount of time," court officials said.

At about noon Monday, close to when the Buena Vista Township Municipal Court was set to close, State Police dropped off the complaints, court administrator Mannetta Bylone said.

But the holidays bring out the train lover in everyone. And during these select few weekends in December and January, local model railroad clubs like Patcong Valley invite outsiders to share in their passion.

"Everyone comes to visit," says Patcong Valley member Ralph Cox. "We'll get railroad buffs from all kinds of clubs. Children who just walk around and look. Everyone."

December especially brings visions of Lionel trains running in a circle under the Christmas tree and children unwrapping their first train sets. Most local railroad buffs admit that the holidays were what started their train passions.

"I was born on Dec. 4," says Norm Wescoat, vice president of the South Jersey Railroad Museum in Tuckahoe. "I got my first train set that Christmas."

The Patcong Valley Society of Model Railroaders plans its annual open house weekends to coincide with the winter holidays. During opening weekend earlier this month, the parking lot outside the society's Richland clubhouse was overflowing. Inside, grown men wearing engineer coveralls and striped caps clutched remote controls and kept a sharp eye on the tiny trains that traveled under mountains, through tunnels and past small model cities.

Adults and children shared the same innocent look of wonder as they watched the trains chug by or stopped to examine the detail in a lifelike lumber mill. Some children brought their own stools to stand on so they could peer over the plexiglass siding and see the miniature buildings and trees in the layouts.

Timmy Stewart, 13, of Dorothy dashed back and forth across the room snapping photos with a digital camera and collecting ideas for his own train layout at home.

"I like how they got a lot of track in a little space," Stewart says, eyeing the layouts critically. "But I would put the higher tracks on the inside so people can see them."

In Clermont, Dennis Township, Joe and Flo Jones have already put a few festive touches on Flyertown, a one-man model railroad exhibit on display in a building behind their house. Inside, the flick of a lightswitch revealed wall-to-wall shelves of collectible American Flyer railroad cars dating back to to World War II and beyond. In the center of the room, brightly colored holiday trains, circus trains and replicas of local lines ran along hundreds of feet of track, waiting for the December crowd.

"The same kids come every year," Flo Jones says. "And every year they get bigger and bigger."

The South Jersey Railroad Museum in Tuckahoe - which is open year-round - has also adopted a holiday feel. Strings of lights, a snow-covered holiday train layout and Santa Claus give this year-round train attraction a holiday feel and visitors young and old tour the building.

Luke Neff, 5, wandered from room to room with the air of one who has been there many times before. This was not just a holiday treat for the five-year-old Seaville resident. He drags his parents to the museum at least twice a month.

"His grandfather was really into train collecting, and he left them to Luke," Paula Neff says as her son strolled through the museum. "Now that's all he's into is trains."

Perhaps there are adult-sized coveralls in his future as well.

Model Railroad Attractions

Cape May County

South Jersey Railroad Museum, Mt. Pleasant Ave., Tuckerton. Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday year-round. Santa Claus will be there each weekend until Christmas. Free. For more information, go to www.sjrails.net.

Flyertown, Route 9, Clermont in Dennis Township. Open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday year-round. Admission is $2.50 for adults, $1.50 for children ages 5 to 12, and free for children under 5. Visit

Behind the police tape that surrounded the tan-walled corner house at Railroad Boulevard, crime scene investigators picked through piles of bedding on the stoop and beat through the thin grass looking for clues left after the shooting Wednesday. Neighbors, meanwhile, gathered and told accounts of the rumored ambush that led up to it.

Sgt. Jeanne Hengemuhle, an information officer at State Police headquarters in Trenton, confirmed that a call about an aggravated assault had come through at 2:08 p.m., and that a man with a gunshot wound to his stomach was flown to Atlantic City Medical Center.

Onlookers said he was treated at the scene by emergency responders, and then was strapped onto a stretcher and wheeled by a team of six to the helicopter, which landed in an open field near the Richland firehouse.

About two hours after the shooting, troopers apprehended two men in connection with the incident and took them to the State Police barracks in Bellmawr for questioning.

But as of 10 p.m., Hengemuhle said she could not release names of the men or the victim, because the initial investigation was still continuing.

Neighbors who gathered at the corner of the boulevard and Wisteria Avenue said the house where the incident occurred was one of the few in the area that was not occupied by longtime residents, but instead leased to renters.

One man who arrived at the scene by car, and who was described by onlookers as a resident of the property, declined to give his name or details about the victim.

Several onlookers, including Ramona Rush who is staying with family across the street from the property, said she did not know the occupants but had spoken with the resident.

"He said it was his uncle who was shot, that two men followed him, then attacked him," she said.

She also said a cell phone that had been dropped by one of the assailants during the fight had later been recovered by police.

It was unclear whether the shooting had occurred inside or outside of the house. Hengemuhle gave no details of any items that may have been taken or charges filed.

Many other neighbors expressed disappointment and fear that a violent home invasion had occurred in an area they considered once safe.

"It just makes you want to pack up and leave," said Paula Ramsey, Rush's sister and a lifelong resident, as she drove along the side of the police cordon to her house. "One thing like this, and you feel the place is changing."

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - The Township Committee has voted to toughen rules on all-terrain vehicles.

Mayor Chuck Chiarello said a resolution passed this week amends an ordinance to give State Police, who enforce law in the township, the power to impound any vehicle if there is evidence it has been involved in an accident or trespassing.

Chiarello said the committee acted after learning of action taken in its neighboring city.

"We saw this resolution in Vineland, which dealt with the impounding of ATVs," he said. The area's previous regulations on ATVs, which have been in place since 1997, "did not cover that," he said.

A recent incident in a local park changed that.

"We had a children's party outside in a local area, and a young child was struck by an ATV," Chiarello said. "The police were not able to collect the vehicle involved during the investigation," he said.

He declined to say more about the incident because he said the case had not yet come to court. State Police did not provide more information about the case.

But Chiarello, who has spoken out with other mayors in support of state legislation mandating the registration of ATVs, also said Friday he is still absorbing the news that the state plans to construct an ATV park on a former sand mine adjacent to Buena Vista Township.

The state DEP announced this week that it would spend $1.2 million in Green Acres funds to purchase the Sahara sand mine in Monroe Township, Gloucester County.

Chiarello said that, with the planned closure of an ATV park in Chatsworth, Burlington County, he feels there is a need for a space for riders.

The alternative is riders driving through the wooded pinelands and winding roads that make up much of the township, he said.

But he said he is not convinced that the Monroe site is suitable.

"Having been dormant for a while, that site has been taken over by wildlife," he said.

The township, he said, is hearing more about the plan and will consider its merits.

He said he had been told the state planned to put out a request for proposals for the site.

"It's not one of those things where we don't want it in our backyard," he explained. But, he added, there were many backyards involved: There are more than 1,000 homes within a couple of miles of the 100-acre site.