The New Jersey State Police said late on Friday night that Hernando Garciamorales, 40, of Palisades Park, N.J., was arrested and accused of throwing a rock on Jan. 7 that broke a window on a Jewish day school bus and struck an 8-year-old girl, fracturing her skull.
Yeshivat Noam, a Modern Orthodox school in Paramus, told JNS previously that “there were no visible markings on the bus identifying it as a Jewish school bus.” The school principal wrote to parents on Thursday saying that the third-grader “is alert and stable, but she will require surgery to ensure the injury heals properly.”
State police told JNS that the incident took place on the northbound lane of the New Jersey Turnpike prior to exit 70 A/B. On Friday, the police said that officers found the suspect “at a self-made campsite within Old Croaker County Park in Bergen County.”
“The investigation also linked Garciamorales to multiple rock-throwing incidents in Bogota Borough, Bergen County,” it said.
The state police said that the suspect is 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.”
The suspect is at Bergen County Jail awaiting a detention hearing, it said.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told JNS on Friday that he was in “close touch with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office as law enforcement continues their investigation.”
“I’m praying for the student and her family, and hope she makes a full recovery from this terrifying incident,” the congressman told JNS.
