Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Maplewood Police Chief Robert Cimino have announced that authorities have made an arrest in connection with this morning’s killing of Wesley Reason inside his Maplewood home.
The victim’s son, Alexander Taylor Reason, 19, has been charged with murder and weapons charges, according to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas S. Fennelly of the Prosecutor’s Homicide Unit.
The younger Reason has been lodged in the Essex county Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing, according to Fennelly.
Maplewood police officers were dispatched to the Reason’s residence at approximately2:30 a.m. today on a report of an assault.
The victim, who was suffering from apparent blunt force injuries, was found unresponsive and he was pronounced dead at 3:08 a.m., according to Fennelly.
Both the victim and the suspect lived in the residence, along with other family members.
An investigation conducted by detectives from the Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Task Force and Maplewood detectives led to charges being filed against the suspect.
The investigation is continuing at this time. The exact cause of death will be determined by an autopsy conducted by at the New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office, according to Fennelly.