A Rahway woman now faces a year of rehabilitation after a crash where the car she was sitting in was struck by a cab after the cab driver was shot and killed.
RAHWAY -- She became almost an afterthought in the news reports of that tragic night in August, one that changed her life forever.
On that warm summer night, Stacey Lopez and her boyfriend, Eric Gandolfe were ending the day sitting in his Ford Fusion in front of Lopez's family home in Rahway.
Lopez saw a Lincoln Continental coming down the road. Then, she heard two pops, and saw the car careening towards Gandolfe's car. The next thing the 22-year-old Lopez remembers is waking up on the ground, her leg in pain.
What she didn't know was that the Continental was a taxi cab, and the pops she heard were gunshots fired by a robber who killed the driver, Imad Alasmar, 57, a father of 10 from Edison. The cab then swerved, hit Gandolfe's car with enough force to throw Lopez out of the open passenger's side door and into a tree.
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Lopez also didn't know she had fractures to her shoulder, ribs and pelvis, and that her right foot was nearly destroyed.
"They said it looked like a bomb went off inside my foot," Lopez said recently from her hospital bed at University Hospital in Newark. She has been through nine surgeries to save the foot, which is kept elevated at all times, encased in a protective plastic bubble, with warm air continually blown in through a tube to promote healing.
So extensive was the damage that doctors suggested the foot be amputated.
Lopez, a 22-year-old Rutgers University senior, who last year performed with a university dance troupe, wanted to save the foot, though it will take a year of rehabilitation.
Gandolfe, 19, of Bridgewater, suffered a concussion, a broken tooth and knee injuries.
It wasn't until the day after the crash that Lopez was told the cab driver had been killed.
"I felt horrible," she said. She said she tried finding Alasmar's son on Facebook to reach out to him. She struggles to comprehend the robbery and shooting.
"Why would you rob a Rahway taxi driver, on a Tuesday night? It's such a stupid crime," she said, admitting to feeling angry. "It's days later and I'm still here (in the hospital). I can't sit up, and I can't walk away."
On Sept. 17, authorities charged 20-year-old Nathaniel Young, of Rahway, with killing Alasmar. Young is in the Essex County Correctional facility, where he faces charges of assault by auto and leaving the scene of accident for an incident completely unrelated to the shooting. Young was arrested in Essex County on Aug. 27, two days after the shooting, authorities said.
Lopez, a college senior majoring in human resources management and minoring in Greek, was on the Rutgers Belly Dance Troupe last year. She had planned to try out for the group again this fall, but missed that along with all her classes.
Lopez last remembers raising her arms in front of her as the Crown Victoria swerved towards her.
"It felt like it was slow motion," she recalled.
Inside the house, Lopez's mother, Joan Chilakos, heard the crash. Then she heard her daughter screaming in pain.
Neighbors rushed to Lopez, and she began asking about Gandolfe. He was knocked out in the crash, but then regained consciousness and began asking people about Lopez.
The Ford Fusion was pushed back into Chilakos' 2014 Ford Focus. Both cars were totaled, they say.
Police and other emergency workers arrived, and Chilakos rode in the ambulance to the hospital. Chilakos recalls the next couple of days as the most terrible of her life, seeing her daughter struggle.
Neighbors told her they saw the taxi cab, heard the shots and saw somebody run away. Police recovered a gun, she said.
Gandolfe was taken to a separate hospital where he was treated and later released. He is more nervous now, and catches himself looking over his shoulder when he stops for gasoline.
"It messes with you a lot," he said.
Friends and family have also been to the hospital, many bringing stuffed toy animals, a couple of which Lopez keeps by her side in bed.
"We have a strong faith in God," Chilakos said. "By God's grace, things will go well."
She wants the shooter to be punished, but quickly says, "There isn't anything that going to undo the damage that's been done."
Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook