Town Watch by Walter Elliott
NEWARK – City police division officers went on a 32-mile round trip to pursue, arrest and return a city man accused of stealing a Newark Fire Division vehicle – and crashing it in Ridgefield Park – July 4.
Public Safety Director Brian O’Hara said an NPD dispatcher got a Newark Fire Battalion Chief’s call from Avon and Peshine avenues 4:10 p.m. that Sunday. The battalion chief said that a civilian had entered his division Ford pickup truck, marked with lights and a siren, and drove away while he and his unit were handling a vehicle fire.
“The vehicle was pursued through multiple jurisdictions by Newark police, with assistance from various law enforcement agencies, until it was observed by Fairview Police,” said O’Hara. “The pursuit continued into Ridgefield Park. (It) ended when the suspect drove to the end of a dead-end road in an industrial area and crashed at 200 Industrial Ave.”
The suspect – identified as Hector B. Perez, 48 – was arrested and brought to Newark’s Essex County Correctional Facility. Perez, who had earlier lost his right eye, is being held on two counts each of burglary by entering, theft by unlawful taking, possession of stolen property (the chief’s car) and unlawful possession of a weapon (the car); one count of possession thereof for an unlawful purpose and three counts of aggressive assault by knowingly attempting serious bodily injury.
“I’m grateful that he was apprehended before he harmed anyone or himself,” said O’Hara. “The suspect not only put his own life in danger but jeopardized the lives of countless drivers and pedestrians citywide and outside of Newark by unlawfully operating a public safety vehicle.”
IRVINGTON – Police officers had first responded to gunfire reports and the call of a motor vehicle crash here at Grove Street 7:40 p.m. July 8. What they found made them instantly summon the ECPO Homicide and Major Crimes Task Force.
What IPD officers found was driver Tariq Patterson behind the wheel unconscious and unresponsive – and suffering from gunshot wounds.
Patterson, 38, of Irvington, was rushed to Newark’s University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m.
Patterson’s fatal shooting came six days after two Rahway men were shot while at a Montrose Terrace block party, west of Grove Street. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced for Patterson nor July 3 victims Malik A. McCallister, 38, and Tariq R. Barnes, 42 as of press time.
Both homicide investigations remain active.
EAST ORANGE – County Homicide Task Force and city police detectives are looking for the killer of a Kenilworth man one block south of East Orange Police Headquarters early July 10.
EOPD officers who instantly responded to a 1 a.m. gunshot report from 67 South Munn Ave. found Alishaki Pearson, 31, shot on the Corinthian Towers property. Pearson was rushed to University Hospital, where he died at 1:36 a.m.
A second unidentified 30-year-old man, who was also found shot here, was treated and released from a local hospital.
Rollover Kills Driver, Hurts Toddler
A two-year-old boy has been released from a local hospital and a funeral held for his driver – both from a June 24 intersection rollover – when you read this.
City police and fire units, responding to a motor vehicle accident call at North Munn Avenue and William Street 5:10 a.m. June 24, found a car lying on its driver’s side and at a right angle to 114 No. Munn Ave. They promptly extricated the driver and the toddler passenger.
The driver, who was given CPR before an EMS ambulance rushed him to Newark’s University Hospital, died at 6 a.m. The boy was taken to another local hospital for treatment of “minor injuries” and released. A preliminary ECPO Crash Investigation Unit finding has the driver losing control and striking a parked unoccupied white four-door SUV before overturning.
A “Local Talk” delivery crew found bent front fencing and a traffic light pole’s damaged base as the crash’s remaining evidence that Thursday afternoon. William Street’s eastbound lane was closed for unrelated utility work.
ORANGE – The estimated 150 mourners who came to celebrate the life of Orange native and 25-year Deputy Essex County Prosecutor Shelton Lenwood McCall at Newark’s Roseville Presbyterian Church July 9 learned some of the rules he had lived by.
The eldest of three McCall children was born in Newark Oct. 10, 1960 and became the Orange High School Class of 1978 graduate via Forest Street and Orange Middle schools. “Sputnik,” as he was named for his energy, ran track and was a football linebacker for the OHS Tornados despite encountering several childhood illnesses and injuries.
“When I first invited Shellie to (East Orange’s Elmwood Presbyterian) church, he told me ‘I’m a Weeble-Wobble.” recalled eulogist Rev. Hodari Williams. “Those who don’t remember Weebles from the 1980s, they were rounded figures who always got up and never fell down.”
McCall went on to earn a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers Law School and began a 25-year career with the ECPO in 1988. The Trial, Gun Strategy and Vehicular Homicide unit member helped establish the vertical prosecution model, where a prosecutor stayed with a case from pre-indictment to disposition. He and wife Deborah meanwhile raised daughters Danielle, Kierra and Kai.
Kierra, in her reflections, listed her father’s six rules of life. They included “Family is more than blood,” “Do what you say and say what you do,” and “Whatever you do, do it the best you can.”
McCall, 60, died June 26. Brothers Douglas and Jerome, sisters Mingyon McCall, Tamara Tillman and Shenna Christian and brothers-in-law Darryl and Floyd Walker III are among his survivors.
WEST ORANGE – Township resident and Montclair native Alen Hadzic has arrived in Tokyo’s Olympic Village – and is under self-quarantine with all the other Olympic Summer Games athletes – while you read this.
Hadzic, 29, who is on the US Olympic Fencing Team, is among the 500-member US team and an anticipated 10,000 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees entering a mandatory lockdown prior to the games’ July 23 opening ceremonies.
The pre-Games isolation, along with a year’s postponement and a June 26 no spectators policy, is among the international and Tokyo organizing committees and the Japanese government are taking to curb any potential COVID outbreaks. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga had declared on July 2 a July 12 – Aug. 22 COVID state of emergency. That emergency caused other sports event organizers there, including Fuji Speedway’s Fuji 6 Hours sports car race, to either postpone or cancel.
Should all go to plan, Hadzic will join his three epee class teammates – on the bench. May’s North American Cup Division I gold medalist is the team’s alternate.
Hadzic, who is going to his first Olympic Games, has been an epee fencer since when he was on the Montclair High School fencing club in 2005. The MHS Class of 2009 graduate continued fencing while pursuing an economics major at Columbia University 2009-14 and beyond.
Hadzic made the team as an alternate after the US Center for Safesport lifted its June 1 temporary suspension on him June 30; a judge had ruled that Safesport did not have enough evidence to suspend him. Safesport is continuing its investigation of a misconduct allegation.
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – A Montclair-based motion picture theater operator will be reopening Village Cinemas at SOPAC on July 22 and the Maplewood Theater next year.
SOPAC announced July 9 that Cinema Lab will start screening both blockbusters and independent films July 22 with tickets going on sale online “soon.” They replace Bow-Tie Cinemas who let its lease lapse Nov. 30.
Movie-goers will also find what SOPAC says are “an updated lobby lounge, a technology-first environment and plush seating.” The Village and Seton Hall University, which co-own the five-screen SOPAC movie theaters, used a seven-month hiatus to renovate.
The Cinema Lab team is said to reopen the Maplewood Theater in 2022, which had been run by CJM Cinemas until Nov. 30, as part of its expansion into 15 movie houses by 2027. The seven-member group, six of whom are Montclarions, had sought to revamp Upper Montclair’s Bellevue Theater until owner Jesse Saygh terminated the lease Jan. 1 for “breach of contract.”
SOMSD Board’s Newest Member Appointed
Maplewoodian and former panelist Chris Sabin became the South Orange-Maplewood School District’s latest Board of Education member after a special interview, executive nomination and public vote here at the administration building Monday night.
Sabin was voted to fill out the remaining six months of the recently-resigned Kamal Zubieta’s term on a 6-2 in-person/Livestream vote; Elissa Malespina and Johanna Wright dissented. Former member Anthony Mazzocchi was also nominated; they, Qawi Telesford, Arun Vadlamani and Kaitlin Wittleder were interviewed.
BLOOMFIELD – It is not known as of press time whether Aurora Manochio will be well enough to attend her husband Anthony’s last rites July 15-16. They had reportedly just left the Belmont Tavern Restaurant and were walking south across Bloomfield Avenue where they were struck by a Nissan Pathfinder SUV at about 9 p.m. July 3.
Responding township police and EMS rushed the Manochios to Newark’s University Hospital, where they were admitted in critical condition. Anthony Manochio, Sr., 83, of Union, died at 10:12 p.m.
No charges were filed against the 44-year-old Nissan driver, who stayed at the scene. Traffic – including buses on five NJTransit routes – was detoured while the ECPO Accident Unit conducted its field investigation.
Anthony Manochio, who was born in Newark Aug. 30, 1937, was a longtime Newark Public Schools teacher and vice-principal who retired as an assistant superintendent of schools and, in retirement, President of the Union Board of Education.
The Sussex Avenue and Barringer High school graduate found his calling in education while briefly in the workforce. He earned teaching degrees from Bloomfield College and Seton Hall University. He first taught for Edison Public Schools before his NPS hiring.
The Manochios moved from Newark to Union’s Fairway Drive in 1984, raising Anthony, Jr., Michael and Michele there. “Andy,” who was an elected UPS board panelist, was a member of the local UNICO chapter and the Knights of Columbus Council No. 4504 there.
Two grandsons and five granddaughters are also among his survivors. A Funeral Mass at Union’s St. Michael’s Church, followed by burial at East Hanover’s Gate of Heaven Cemetery, was set for July 16. Memorial donations may be made to the American Heart Association.
MONTCLAIR – The Montclair Parking Utility has recently issued this directive to just-parked motorists who find their meters jammed or malfunctioning: Pay via the ParkMobile app or drive away to a working meter.
That is the word, based on municipal law that forbids knowingly parking at a broken meter, MPU Superintendent Manny Germano gave Second Ward Councilwoman Robin Schlager at the June 22 Township Council meeting. Schlager said that she had resorted to paying for 15 minute periods with her credit card after encountering two meters with jammed coin slots.
Germano explained that her maintenance staff has been working on a backlog of 160 bad meters between the start of the COVID pandemic and since parking enforcement has recently resumed. The 160, where the meters had to go to the municipal garage for repairs, are 12.4 percent of the 1,300 meters deployed across the township.
The MPU, added Germano, has been hampered by the lack of parts from its manufacturer. They have fallen into COVID-19-related supply chain disruptions that remain into press time.
The utility meanwhile finds an average 60 daily nonfunctioning meters. While all meters electronically report their status to the MPU garage every midnight, some are spotted by enforcers and/or the public.
Although the smart meters accept credit and debit cards, their batteries may drain when an object blocks its solar panels long enough. Some meters’ coin slots are jammed by motorists or vandals.
BELLEVILLE – Mayor Michael Melham apparently got a little ahead of himself July 6 when he talked about the Township Council authorizing adjacent sites for two mini-soccer fields on their July 13 meeting.
The two 40-by-70-foot mini fields, a gift from the Players Development Academy and RWJBarnabas Health Clara Maas Medical Center, was on Tuesday night’s agenda – but as a discussion item from the mayor.
Melham still intends to forward legislation to the council that would authorize PDA and its contractor to build the side-by-side fields – but it will take a little longer, pending Belleville elders’ approval. The fields’ location remains Melham’s secret until he posts the authorization.
Those two fields, when finished, will give Belleville youth a taste of soccer – also known as football outside of North America. It will be the first dual fields among the first six that the PDA is setting up statewide. Melham and Clara Maas President Mary Ellen Cline were guests of PDA, RWJBarnanas Health Beth Israel Medical Center and the City of Newark when they opened their field at 378 Lyons Ave. July 6.
PDA Urban Initiative Director Gerry McKeown, at Newark’s opening, said that similar fields have been built this year in New Brunswick, Elizabeth and Paterson. They are to provide an urban stepping stone to organized youth teams without having to go to clubs that charge tuition.
The Township Council may take up Melham’s authorization bill as early as their Aug. 17 meeting.
NUTLEY / CLIFTON – Drivers who use the 30-foot-long Third River bridge that spans Nutley and Clifton here have been following detours since July 6. That traffic includes NJTransit’s buses on its Nos. 27-Nutley, 74-Delawanna, 190 series and 324 routes.
They will be getting used to those detours for between the next 300 days to a full year while the 121-year-old bridge is replaced. That work includes moving gas and sewer lines, new sidewalks, curbs, drainage inlets and a milled and paved surface.
The bridge was first built in 1900 and was widened in 1925. It is not immediately clear whether elements of the original bridge will be retained or reproduced as Essex County had with Nutley’s Centre Street Bridge.
The project is called “Kingsland Road Bridge No. 1600-081,” using Passaic County Roads Department and Clifton’s name for the span. Nutley and Essex County call it the Kingsland Street Bridge.
Neither Nutley nor Essex County is objecting over the naming. Passaic County had agreed to hold off on starting their project until Essex County had completed the Centre Street Bridge project.
