R.I.P. Jose & Get Well Uriel!!!
Newark diner shooting suspect surrenders after manhunt
by Jonathan Schuppe/The Star-Ledger Wednesday January 02, 2008, 5:07 PM
David Fernandez, 26, of Newark turned himself in to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office in connection with the fatal shooting of Jose Rivera, 39, of Newark, outside the Andros Diner.Ending a weeklong nationwide dragnet, a Newark man wanted in the Dec. 26 killing of a nightclub bouncer gave himself up today.
After fleeing to Miami, David Fernandez, 26, came back to Newark and turned himself in to Essex County authorities at 8 a.m., police said. He was accompanied by a defense lawyer, Henry Klingeman, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.
Fernandez has been charged with murder, attempted murder and illegal weapon possession for the early-morning shooting outside Andros Diner on Wilson Avenue. He is being held in the Essex County Jail on $750,000 bail, Essex County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Paul Loriquet said.
The 3:30 a.m. shooting erupted after Fernandez and a friend, Jimmy Zamuz, confronted two bouncers who had turned them away from a party at a nearby social club earlier that night, authorities said. The four men started brawling, then Fernandez allegedly pulled a gun and shot both bouncers, Jose Rivera and Uriel Ocasio. Authorities said the gunman fled after a witness grabbed the pistol from him.
Rivera, 39, was hit in the chest and died. Ocasio, 36, was hit twice, in the face and chest, but wrestled Zamuz to the ground and held him until police arrived, authorities said.
Zamuz, 27, has not been charged with the shooting, but has been charged with weapons possession for firing a gun just after he and Fernandez were rejected from the social club, authorities said.
*Edited to add:
Man is killed, one wounded outside diner
By Alexi Friedman and Jonathan Schuppe/Thursday, December 27, 2007
Uriel Ocasio and José Rivera weren't men you'd want to fight. Both were longtime bouncers at Newark bars. Rivera was a kickboxer and former soldier. Ocasio stood about 6 feet and weighed more than 250 pounds.
But early yesterday morning, as the two good friends left a Wilson Avenue diner in the Ironbound, they were confronted by a couple of unruly men they'd barred from a Christmas party in the neighborhood a short time earlier.
There was yelling, and then a tussle. And then one of the men pulled a gun.
Yesterday, Ocasio awoke at University Hospital to learn his friend had been shot dead in the chest.
"He's distraught," said Councilman Donald M. Payne, for whom Ocasio works as an aide. "He's blaming himself ... saying in his sleep, mouthing the words, 'Too slow, I was too slow.'"
Although the shooter escaped, Ocasio managed to pin the other attacker to the ground until police arrived -- despite being shot in the face and chest.
That man, Jimmy Zamuz, 27, of Newark, was questioned and later arrested on weapons charges in the 3:30 a.m. shooting. Police were still looking for the other man last night, authorities said.
A key clue in the case is the small-caliber pistol, which a witness wrested from the shooter before he fled. Investigators are also examining a video taken from a city surveillance camera, which caught at least some of the altercation outside of Andros Diner.
Authorities also are examining links to gunfire heard late Tuesday night after the two attackers were turned away from the Christmas party. It remains unclear if the bouncers were followed to the diner or if the encounter was coincidental.
Meanwhile, Rivera's shocked family gathered yesterday to grieve at his small blue house on Summer Avenue.
The 39-year-old Newark native was the father of five, who worked as a taxi driver as well as a bouncer, said his father, Nicodemo Rivera.
"Everybody knows him. They know he's a good guy. He never had a problem with anyone," Rivera said.
Rivera and Ocasio had been friends for years, Rivera's family said.
Yesterday Ocasio, 36, lay in a bed at University Hospital, struggling to recover both from his own wounds and from his friend's loss. "He's very heartbroken," said Councilman Anibal Ramos, who visited him in the hospital.
One bullet penetrated Ocasio's chest, missing his heart by inches, while at least one other bullet struck him by his left ear, Ramos said.
Payne described Ocasio, a longtime resident of the North Ward, as a gentle man who has often impressed him with his ability to deal with constituents. Still, Payne said, Ocasio has a bouncer's imposing physique.
"He's mild-mannered and quiet. He's a very conscientious and determined man, but I can tell if you cross him you're in trouble," Payne said. "You can see when he gets worked up he's probably a handful."
Ocasio and Rivera worked at various bars throughout the city, including the QXT goth bar on Mulberry Street. But Christmas night found them guarding the door to a party at the Centro Orensano Social Club at Lafayette and Bruen streets in the Ironbound.
Club members gathered there for quiet rounds of cards, port wine and espresso yesterday said the space had been rented for the evening, and that the party was not for regular members.
The Andros Diner, where Ocasio and Rivera went for a snack after leaving the party, stands near the busy intersection of Wilson Avenue and Ferry Street. Although Christmas decorations still hung from the lampposts yesterday, restaurant owner Giorgios Papas said firefighters had already washed the blood from the pavement.
Despite the holiday, Papas said his diner was just as busy as it usually is when the bars and clubs close.
"I haven't heard of this kind of thing in all my years," Papas said, adding the diner was busy Christmas night, as it always is around that time when the bars let out. "This was a life that was lost, and for what?"
Staff writer Carly Rothman contributed to this report.