A U.S. Postal employee at the Newark Turnpike Postal facility has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault after she allegedly mowed down two colleagues on Feb. 24, Capt. Timothy Wagner, the public information officer of the Kearny Police Department, announced this week.
That day, at approximately 11:57 a.m., Kearny officers responded to the U.S. Postal Service, Dominick V. Daniels Processing and Distribution Center, at 850 Newark Turnpike, on a 911 call reporting that a driver had just run over two people in the parking lot with a car.
Responding officers found a 25-year-old woman and a 26-year-old woman — both postal employees — injured but conscious in the parking lot. The victims reported that a third postal employee hit them with her car following a dispute.
One of the victims reported having been run over by the car and the other employee reported having been hit by the car and knocked down.
The driver fled the scene in her vehicle prior to police arrival.
Both victims were transported to University Hospital, Newark, by EMS. As of presstime, one victim has been released from hospital. The status of the second victim is not immediately available.
Later that day, Kearny police and U.S. Postal inspectors began an investigation and at approximately 3:30 p.m. the same date, the suspect, Lashanda Johnson, 27, of East Orange, was located in East Orange.
She was charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose (vehicle), unlawful possession of a weapon (vehicle), leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in serious bodily Injury and several traffic violations.
Johnson remains in the custody of U.S. Postal inspectors.
Chief George King credits the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for working cooperatively with the Kearny Police Department to quickly bring closure to this investigation.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.