PATERSON, New Jersey — One man is dead and several others were injured following a hit-and-run crash in Paterson, New Jersey, on Tuesday.
The carnage, which took place at around 3:15pm near the corner of Main and Market Streets, left six people injured in addition to the fatality, according to Passaic County officials.
Authorities say a suspect in a stolen Honda CRV struck a parked police vehicle before colliding with another car and hitting multiple pedestrians.
The CRV then collided head-on with a light pole and became disabled.
The Paterson hit-and-run crash driver then escaped on foot, but was apprehended a block away.
Several others who work in the vicinity identified the man who died as the owner of a Chinese restaurant who always made his own deliveries, however authorities have not disclosed his name at this time.
One of the five people injured is in critical condition.
Mayor Andre Sayegh said the suspect’s vehicle was stolen. Investigators are still trying to figure out if the suspect was engaged in a police chase beforehand.
Charges are pending, and the investigation remains active and ongoing.
An off-duty police officer getting a haircut Saturday afternoon shot and killed a 38-year-old man who police say burst into the East Baltimore shop and shot a barber to death.
On Monday morning, police identified Carlos Ortega as the man who fatally shot the barber. Investigators allege Ortega was also responsible for two earlier shootings that left a 44-year-old man dead and another person critically injured.
Police are trying to determine a motive linking the three shootings. The third and final shooting occurred at The Bladi Style barber shop in the 5700 block of O’Donnell St. in Baltimore’s Medford neighborhood.
After Ortega allegedly committed the other two shootings Saturday, he entered the barbershop and fatally shot 33-year-old Rafael Jeffers, authorities said.
The off-duty Baltimore police sergeant was getting a haircut from another barber at about 3:16 p.m., Harrison said. The officer, who was armed while off duty and in plain clothes, responded quickly “and with great bravery produced his firearm” and fatally shot Ortega, Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said.
Harrison said detectives linked the shooting to the two earlier incidents, but he declined to elaborate on the possible connection between them.
“We’re processing three different scenes in three parts of the city,” the commissioner said. “While this perpetrator has expired from his injuries, we will still need answers to these questions.”
One victim was is in critical condition from a shooting that occurred around 2 p.m. in the 5000 block of East Oliver St. in the Armistead Gardens neighborhood, about two miles away from the barber shop, police said. Police believe that shooting followed an argument.
Police also said Javier Villegas Cotto, a 44-year-old man, died from a shooting in the 4600 block of Eastern Ave., near Greektown.
“We are working to determine the connectivity, which is a likely connectivity,” Harrison said during a briefing near the barber shop.
The police officer, who was not identified, was not injured, Harrison said.
Mayor Brandon Scott appeared at the briefing with Harrison, thanking the police officer.
”This is something the average person wouldn’t do,” Scott said. “And this is something that our officers do each and every day in the city of Baltimore.