No good deed goes unpunished and one Kearny Good Samaritan learned that the hard way this week.
Here’s how.
On Dec. 17 at 4:30 a.m., a Kearny resident told police he was driving home on Passaic Avenue when he came across a woman running and in apparent distress, asking for help. The citizen allowed the woman into his car and she told him she was being chased by a man with a machete near Belgrove Drive and asked to be taken to the police station.
The driver was in the process of obliging the woman’s request when suddenly he realized he was being followed by a minivan, occupied by the woman’s alleged attacker.
He attempted to change his route, but the minivan continued to follow the pair aggressively.
The good Samaritan rushed to Kearny Police Department Headquarters; however, as he pulled up out front on Laurel Avenue, the mini-van intentionally rammed into his vehicle.
As the driver attempted to get the woman to KPD HQ, the minivan then purposely rammed another side of the vehicle. When the two vehicles uncoupled, the aggressor rammed the driver a third time. Luckily, this disabled the aggressor’s minivan, ending his ability for any more attacks.
Unfortunately, this ended in the citizen’s vehicle heavily damaged on three sides.
Officers ran out of the police station upon hearing this nonsense and quickly diffused the situation.
Unfortunately for our good citizen, vehicle insurance laws aren’t enforced particularly strictly in Jersey, and they learned the aggressor in this situation had been driving without insurance. And the investigation also determined the aggressor was intoxicated.
Homero Montepeque, 51, of Trenton, was arrested and his disabled vehicle was impounded. A weapon was recovered from the vehicle.
Statements were obtained from the two victims.
Montepeque was charged with drunken driving, driving without insurance, reckless driving, two counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle, one count of aggravated assault with a weapon, three weapons charges and criminal mischief before he was remanded to the Hudson County Jail, South Kearny, where, as of Dec. 19, he remains in jail custody, according to DOC records.
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On Dec. 18 at around 8 p.m., Officers Bryan San Martin and Renzo Sosa responded to the Target store after loss prevention detained Megan R. McKenna, 18, of North Arlington, for shoplifting $229.16 worth of merchandise.
Loss prevention reported this was at least the third time McKenna reportedly shoplifted from them and this time, they wanted to pursue the previous shopliftings of $134.94 and $70.92 as well.
Complaint summonses were generated, charging Mckenna with a total of three counts of shoplifting.
She was later released from Kearny Police Headquarters with her summonses and court dates.
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On Dec. 17 at 1 a.m., officers were dispatched to the area of 700 Schuyler Ave. on a report of a burglary to multiple vehicles. Officers Ruben Rivera, Brad Salinas, Michael Ore, Lawrence Latka and Angel Martinez with Lt. Scott Traynor arrived on scene shortly after.
Prior to officers’ arrival, dispatch officer Matos advised the other officers a witness on scene observed a male wearing all black going through multiple vehicles on the property and said he was still on scene in the lower level of the parking lot.
Officer Martinez observed a male matching the description exiting a black Cadillac in the parking lot. The male saw the officer and began running.
After a brief foot pursuit, the male was caught behind Schuyler School. A search incident to arrest yielded proceeds from at least four vehicle burglaries. Torrence Q. Williams, 25, of Belleville, was also the subject of active warrants from three different jurisdictions — the Elizabeth, Seaside and Pohatcong police departments — and all released him on his own recognizance on the warrants.
(Editor’s note: There is little to no point in picking someone up on warrants these days when the court just releases them the next day and they don’t show to their court hearings anyways.)
Williams was charged on summonses with four counts of burglary, two counts of theft, and a single count of obstruction before being released from HQ. (He was provided with a court date for the Kearny offenses, which may or may not turn into a fourth jurisdiction issuing warrants to be ignored.)
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On Dec. 15, Officers Salinas and Rivera responded to the 300 block of Schuyler Avenue on a vehicle crash call. There, they learnt a Jeep Commander had violently flipped over in the roadway and was on its side.
The driver, Vanessa Alonso, 38, of Kearny, was reportedly nearby yelling at people in a slurred voice. As officers spoke to her, they noted a strong odor of alcohol and other signs of impairment. The investigation determined Alonso had reportedly crashed into a parked vehicle so hard her Jeep flipped over, leading to heavy damages to the vehicles involved.
Throughout the incident, Alonso was allegedly falling asleep and waking up.
She was later taken to hospital, charged with drunken and careless driving and possession of an open container in a vehicle and left in the custody of hospital staff.
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Det. Sgt. Michal Gontarczuk | Kearny Police Department
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.