Girl’s skull fractured-rock thrown through schoolbus window

Post Reply New Topic

An 8-year-old Jewish girl was hospitalized with a fractured skull after being struck by a rock, which was thrown through a window on the bus she was aboard, on the New Jersey Turnpike in Teaneck on Wednesday afternoon.

The New Jersey State Police told JNS that it is seeking public assistance in its investigation of an aggravated assault, to which it responded at around 2:10 p.m. yesterday. The incident took place near exit 70A/B on the turnpike, it said.

“Based on a preliminary investigation, a rock was thrown at a school bus traveling northbound in the right lane,” it told JNS. “The rock shattered a side window and struck an 8-year-old student, causing serious injuries.” (JNS asked the state police if it is probing the incident as a potential hate crime.)

A spokesman for the school, Bergen County’s Yeshivat Noam, told JNS that “we do not yet know the motive behind the incident, and it would be premature to draw conclusions.”

“There were no visible markings on the bus identifying it as a Jewish school bus,” the spokesman said.

The rock was the size of a baseball, according to reporting in Yeshiva World News which said that the surgery taking place at Hackensack University Medical Center.

The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office told JNS that it “is aware of an incident that occured yesterday on the N.J. Turnpike and is providing all necessary assistance to the New Jersey State Police.” It referred JNS to the state police. (JNS also sought comment from the FBI.)

The unnamed girl and her class at Yeshivat Noam—noam means “peace” in Hebrew—were reportedly returning from the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, an interactive museum which is popular for school trips.

There is a lot of hatred towards Jewish people these days. No wonder I don't wear hats that look like German helmets, any more.

A New Jersey man was arrested Saturday for allegedly throwing a rock at a school bus and fracturing the skull of an eight-year-old Jewish girl, the New Jersey State Police announced, though there is still no indication of a motive.

Palisades Park resident Hernando Garcia Morales was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal mischief, resisting arrest by flight, and hindering, police said in a press release.

The 40-year-old was linked to multiple rock-throwing incidents in Bergen County, besides the Wednesday incident against a bus transporting third-grade students from Yeshivat Noam