An online news source recently published a story about teenagers being shot in Westfield with an Airsoft gun that was loaded with plastic pellets. Additional facts, not provided In that news story, are revealed here.
The shootings took place after 18 year old Edward Bergin of Garwood, along with a 17 year old Clark resident, went "joy-riding" in a motor vehicle taken from the home of an acquaintance of one of the suspects in the shootings.
A TFoTM source not authorized to speak on behalf of police investigators stated that the acquaintance, a female sophomore student at a magnet school in a neighboring town, alerted the suspects that her parents were out of town and allegedly provided the suspects with a key code combination to access the residence and where to locate the keys to the family BMW. The suspects took the vehicle and "cruised" around Westfield when the shootings took place. Text messaging between the girl and the suspects revealed her willingness to provide access to the family residence while they were away on vacation.
Suspect Edward Bergin is charged with possession of a weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. Being charged with the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, and not possession of a stolen vehicle or other charges related to "stealing" a motor vehicle, is most likely because of the vehicle owners daughter being involved with tipping off the suspects.
Edward Bergin, a senior at Arthur J. Johnson High School in Clark, NJ, was sent to the Union County jail and is now out on bail.
The 17 year old suspect, also a student at ALJ in Clark, allegedly returned to school with a law monitoring ankle bracelet and a security officer in tow but was eventually removed from school due to the distraction caused to other students and because of objections made by school officials.
The name provided to TFoTM of the 17 year old suspect is being withheld as is the name of the owner of the motor vehicle used during the assaults.
Several WHS students were struck by pellets. I am aware of students being attended to by the Westfield Rescue Squad in downtown Westfield. They described the white BMW X5 as being the vehicle from which the shots were fired. One student was struck in the face near the eye and was left bleeding as a result. I am pleased there was an arrest.
ReplyDeleteThe parents of the girl will blame the boys, no doubt. This reminds me of the party on Summit Ct. at the Maloney's house couple years ago when the parents were out of town and the daughter had a bash at the house that got out of control and the house was trashed. Blame everyone else and protect you daughter. There has to be some disconnect between the parents and their child for incidents like this to happen or there isn't much common sense being used.
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