It was a busy day June 21 at the Kearny Marshalls store when three people were arrested on shoplifting charges, Det. Sgt. Michal Gontarczuk, the Kearny Police Department’s public information officer said.
Silvia Morrison, 41, of South River, was charged with shoplifting and hindering apprehension, and she was wanted on a $1,000 warrant out of Belleville. Morrison reportedly provided a false name and birthday initially, but was fingerprinted (using Live Scan) which revealed her true identity. She was taken in by Officers Ryan Wilson, Lawrence Latka and Bismark Karikari and later remanded to the Hudson County Jail, South Kearny.
Then, it was Anthony V. Walker, 54, of Newark, also charged on a $1,000 Newark warrant, a $2,500 East Orange warrant and a $150 Newark warrant. Walker was arrested by Officer Angel Martinez and he, too, was remanded to the county.
Lastly, it was Fiorella Guevara, 22, of Harrison. Guevara was arrested by Officers Kevin Matos and Angel Martinez and later released on his own recognizance, pending court.
Another shoplifter, same Marshalls store
Officers Nicole Cain and Sean King responded to Marshall’s on June 16 on what was initially a trespassing call. Police said Jorge Laos, 44, of Kearny, was detained by store security simply to trespass him without police involvement, but then Laos reportedly gave loss-prevention officers three ID cards, some of which appeared fraudulent.
When police arrived and arrested Laos on the trespassing charge, they found merchandise on him from another store. Laos was ultimately charged with shoplifting and two counts of forgery for the Marshalls incident.
Later, officers confirmed that aforementioned the merchandise was taken from the Target store across street. Police added another count of shoplifting to Laos’s charges. He was later released on his own recognizance, pending court.
Drunken-driver didn’t want to take breath test
Sgt. Michael Farinola reportedly noticed a vehicle running, pulled to the side of the road in a prohibited area with the passenger tire on the curb on June 18. He said the driver appeared to be sleeping behind the wheel. Officers Ruben Rivera and Michael Ore arrived to the scene as backup.
Brito allegedly showed signs of heavy intoxication and performed poorly on all standardized field-sobriety tests. He was arrested and later refused to blow into Alco test at HQ. Rivera was charged with drunken driving and refusal to submit to a chemical breath test.
He was released on his own recognizance, to a responsible person, pending court.
Arrested on HCSO warrant
Officer Kevin Matos conducted a motor vehicle stop of a white Honda on June 22 for equipment violations. Upon checking the registration, he was alerted to a hit, indicating the registered owner, Serenity A. Smith, 19, of Kearny, was wanted by the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office. She was taken into custody and also issued a traffic summonses for an equipment violation and for unlicensed driving.
Smith was later transferred into the custody of the HCSO.
Stolen car was low on gas, instead driver is arrested
The Kearny PD received a report from the New Jersey State Police that a stolen 2021 BMW 530 sedan was tracked to the area of 150 Harrison Ave., Wawa. Sgt. Farinola located the vehicle at the gas pumps and with Officer Matos, they lit up the vehicle, confirmed it was stolen and arrested the alleged car thief, Adama Traore, 30, of Irvington. Also found during the search of the suspect and vehicle were multiple out-of-state registrations and a key fob to a Dodge. Further investigation is ongoing.
And, after all this, Traore was released a summons.
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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.
