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« on: June 26, 2009, 10:13:17 AM »
Residents living in the first ward have been asking for more police presence for a long time. The story below is an unfortunate tragedy but maybe now their wish will be granted.
Hackensack police search for car in connection to stabbing
Thursday, June 25, 2009
BY MONSY ALVARADO
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
Hackensack police were searching today for a black Honda with New York license plates in connection to a stabbing of a 20-year old Teaneck man.
Victor Garcia was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center last night with stab wounds to his neck and abdomen, said Captain Frank Lomia. Garcia underwent surgery and remains in critical condition, Lomia said.
“That vehicle and the occupants are people of interest to us,’’ Lomia said today. “I’d like to find out who they are. We are very interested in talking with them.”
Garcia was spending time with friends on Lodi Street when the vehicle with tinted windows drove by, said Lomia. The occupants were tossing beer bottles, which prompted Garcia and others in the area to run, Lomia said.
“We think possibly the occupants of that car got to him in some way and may have done this,’’ Lomia said.
Police received a call around 9:55 p.m. that a man was laying outside the M&M Building, a recreation center, on Holt Street, Lomia said. When police, ambulance and fire personnel arrived, Garcia was lying on the grass bleeding, Lomia said.
Rev. Brian Laffler, a minister at St. Anthony of Padua, an Episcopal Church in Hackensack, said he headed to the hospital when he heard about the stabbing.
“When I heard that there is an incident, I always worry that it is someone connected to the church,’’ he said . It's part of being the pastor in this neighborhood.”
“This is just a very tragic situation,’’ he added.