IRVINGTON — Two of the victims in a Christmas morning triple homicide at an Irvington go-go bar include the son of the owner and a bouncer who worked there.

Pierre Clervoyant Sr., who owned Slick's Go-Go, said his son, Pierre, 34, the bar manager, and a bouncer, Woodley Daniel, 32, were shot and killed by the unidentified suspect. The third man came to the bar with the suspected shooter, Clervoyant said.

Authorities said the third victim remains unidentified and appeared to be an unintended target. All three were pronounced dead at University Hospital in Newark shortly after 1 am.

Clervoyant said two men tried to enter the bar at about 12:30 a.m., and the bouncer denied them entry because "they were clearly drunk."

At one point, the bouncer realized the man had a gun, and asked him to step back.

Clervoyant said his son heard the commotion and went over "to calm the situation down."

"He was trying to be the peacemaker," said Stephanie Clervoyant, 25, the sister of Pierre Clervoyant, Jr.

Pierre Clervoyant Jr. and two bar patrons went to assist the bouncer, and the argument spilled outside. At some point, the suspect pulled the gun and fired an undetermined number of shots, killing Clervoyant, Woodley and the unidentified man and wounding the two others.

At the Clervoyant home in Elizabeth this morning, the large family gathered to mourn the loss of a man his wife said was known for his smile and for being a mentor to young people in the Haitian community..

"Everyone knew Pierre because of his smile," said Candice Clervoyant, a maternity nurse at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

The couple lives upstairs from his parents, with their daughter Jaidyn, who turned six on Sunday. Clervoyant's mother, Marie, celebrated her birthday on Christmas Eve, hours before her son was shot.

Candice Clervoyant said her husband was a dedicated father. "He was better than a great father, he was excellent," she said. "He was kind and compassionate."

Clervoyant was a graduate of Fairleigh-Dickinson University and employed by the city of Elizabeth in the office of aging, his family said.

At the family home yesterday, calls were coming in from city officials offering help to the family for funeral arrangements.

"Everyone loved my brother," said Stephanie Clervoyant, who was wearing a New York Knicks pullover that belong to him.



Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray and Irvington Police Director Joseph Santiago said the Irvington Police and the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force were investigating the shooting.

Slick's, at Nye Avenue & 21st Street, was hosting a theme party called Sluddie Tuesday. There have been at least two other shootings at Slick's in recent years, including a 2010 incident that left one man dead.

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