TEANECK, N.J. — A man already facing multiple charges for rock-throwing assaults in Bergen County has been arrested in connection with an attack that seriously injured an 8-year-old girl when a rock was hurled through a school bus window on the New Jersey Turnpike, state police said.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Authorities identified the suspect as Hernando Garcia Morales, 40, whose last known address was in Palisades Park. Police said Morales was taken into custody Friday in Overpeck Park, where investigators believe he had been living in a makeshift campsite near the scene of the attack.
The incident occurred Wednesday afternoon as a bus carrying third-grade students from Yeshivat Noam in Paramus was returning from a class trip to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. A baseball-sized rock smashed through a window and struck the girl in the head.
The child was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was listed as alert and in stable condition but later underwent surgery. School officials said the procedure was necessary to ensure proper healing.
State police said Morales had been awaiting trial on earlier charges involving similar conduct, including an aggravated assault case in Bogota last summer that kept him in jail for two months. Court records show he was released in September and later charged twice more in October with assaulting law enforcement officers.
Investigators said other recent encounters involving Morales included allegations of criminal mischief and trespassing.
Despite his criminal history, officials said Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not issued a detainer for Morales as of Saturday, indicating that his immigration status is not currently in question.
Morales is being held in the Bergen County jail and is ineligible for release under New Jersey’s bail reform law. He faces multiple charges, including aggravated assault, child endangerment, resisting arrest and weapons offenses.
State police said the investigation involved cooperation among the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the county sheriff’s office and police departments in Teaneck and Bogota. Morales is expected to make his first court appearance in Hackensack in the coming days.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A36nmjc1K/
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16wax1GZeB/
Animal.
Illegal? Should he have been deported many arrests ago?
may she fully recover. RABBI
Does ice need to step in?
He has violated American law deport him.
Scumbag
Need to take him out back, and beat the crap out of him. Cops will have no problem looking away. The problem is, the modox don’t operate like this.
Hashem should have rachmanus on her and send her a full Refua b’karov
He would’ve been deported but Rene Good interfered
why does HIAS bring them in?
he should be jailed and deported before he gets a gun and really causes serious harm to Jews.
If you read the article you will see that his immigration status is not currently in question or ICE would have arrested him already.
it would be most helpful if the article clarified whether it was referring to bogota, the capital of colombia, or bogota nj. especially when the mention of ice and a possible detention order, plus the suspect’s spanish name, imply that he is in the usa illegally. otherwise, he’s just a homegrown violent homeless person, out on bail, and we can all put away our righteous indignation.
Should be executed