A Union County grand jury has returned a five-count indictment against a former Elizabeth resident who was apprehended in England approximately two months ago after spending years overseas as a fugitive wanted for his role in a 2012 homicide, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Wednesday.
Eslam Gad, 27, is charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two related weapons offenses in connection with the shooting that took the life of 21-year-old Anthony Holmes Jr. of Pemberton Township, Burlington County.
Several minutes before midnight on Wednesday, August 8, 2012, Holmes was in the area of 3rd and Pine streets in the Elizabethport neighborhood with a relative and several friends when a person later identified as Gad fired numerous gunshots out the window of a red Ford Mustang, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Bruce Holmes, who is prosecuting the case.
The shooting victim, who was not believed to have been the intended target, was struck by gunfire and rushed to University Hospital in Newark, where he was pronounced dead early the next day, Holmes said.
No one else was injured or killed as a result of the shooting, although two vehicles and a private residence were struck by gunfire.
An intensive joint investigation involving the Union County Homicide Task Force, Union County Sheriff’s Office, and Elizabeth Police Department resulted in Gad being identified as a suspect in the case, and criminal complaints were filed against him in Superior Court in late August 2012, several days after he had fled the country.
In November 2016, members of the Prosecutor’s Office were notified that INTERPOL had obtained a provisional arrest warrant for Gad, who was located and apprehended in Manchester, England. He subsequently waived extradition and was transported to the U.S. last month, after which he was lodged in Union County Jail.
Assisting in this investigation, along with INTERPOL, were members of the FBI, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Justice Department, and U.S. Marshals Service.
Convictions on first-degree murder charges are commonly punishable by 30 years to life in state prison.