By: Richard L. Smith
Authorities in Newark and East Orange are investigating two reportedly related violent incidents that unfolded on Thanksgiving Day
According to East Orange Police officials, the first incident occurred around 2 p.m. on Sylvan Avenue in Newark, where police responded to a reported carjacking.
According to the victim, two men approached him with a handgun and stole his black 2019 Cadillac XTS.
Surveillance footage later revealed that this same vehicle was used in a second, more violent incident just hours later in East Orange.
At approximately 5:30 p.m., the East Orange Police Department (EOPD) received a distressing call from a woman on Davis Place reporting that her son had been shot.
Officers arrived to find a 21-year-old man with a gunshot wound that had passed through one leg and into the other.
He was transported to University Hospital, where he remains in stable condition.
The victim told police he had been with two other men, ages 20 and 21, near Church Place and North Maple Avenue when they noticed a black Cadillac and another light-colored vehicle circling the block.
On the second pass, East Orange Police said seven individuals wearing ski masks exited the vehicles and confronted the group, one of them brandishing a firearm.
The suspects allegedly robbed the three men, taking a cell phone from one of them, before opening fire and injuring the 21-year-old.
The light-colored vehicle, identified as a Volkswagen Jetta, was also flagged in connection with a felony armed robbery in New York City.
Both vehicles—the stolen Cadillac and the Jetta—have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database as felony vehicles.
No suspects have been arrested in connection with either the Newark carjacking or the East Orange shooting.
Police are urging anyone with information about these incidents to contact the East Orange Police Department Tips Line.
The investigations are ongoing as authorities work to piece together the events leading up to these crimes and identify those responsible.