A 20-year-old Rahway man is charged with murder and robbery in the killing of taxi cab driver who was the father of 10 children.
RAHWAY -- A 20-year-old city man is being held on $1 million bail, charged with the robbery and fatal shooting last month of a taxi cab driver who was the father of 10 children.
Nathaniel Young is charged with murder, felony murder and robbery, all first degree crimes, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace Park announced today.
Young is accused in the killing of Imad Alasmar, 57, of Edison, who was shot in his taxi cab about 10:45 p.m. Aug. 25, on 1400 block of Bedford Street in Rahway.
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Police responded to a report of an incident and car crash, and found Alasmar wounded in the taxi cab, authorities have said. Alasmar's widow, Ibtesam Alasmar, said she was told by another cab driver that her husband had been dispatched to pick-up a fare when the robbery occurred.
After the shooting, the taxi had collided with a parked car, and injured both a man and woman in that vehicle, said Union County Assistant Prosecutor Albert Cernadas Jr., who is prosecuting the case.
Investigators from Rahway police, the county Homicide Task Force and the Union County Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Unit developed information leading to the identification of Young as the suspect, Cernadas said.
Young is currently in the Essex County Corrections Facility. He has been held at that facility since Aug. 27 on unrelated charges of assault by auto and leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury, authorities said.
Union County authorities also charged him with second-degree weapons offenses.
Bail for the Union County charges was set at $1 million, Park said.
Murder and felony murder charges carry maximum sentences of 30 years to life in prison upon conviction.
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