ORANGE, NJ — December began in an unpleasant way for Orange Township, with a taxi cab driver being shot and killed on Snyder Street late on Wednesday, Nov. 30, followed by an unidentified dead woman being discovered inside a vacant building in in the 300 block of Highland Avenue on Monday, Dec. 5.
“Shortly after 11 p.m., Orange police officers were dispatched to the 200 block of Snyder Street on reports of a motor vehicle crash,” acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray said Thursday, Dec. 1. “Arriving officers observed that a livery cab had crashed at this location. Upon further examination, the officers observed that the driver of the cab, who was unresponsive, was suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.”
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas S. Fennelly of the Prosecutor’s Homicide Unit said the driver, Jonas Larose, 55, of East Orange, was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:36 p.m.
“This incident is being investigated by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Major Crimes Task Force and the Orange Police Department. The investigation is active and ongoing at this time,” Fennelly said Thursday, Dec. 1.
Then on Monday, Dec. 5, Murray announced authorities were investigating a dead body discovered inside a vacant home earlier that day.
“At approximately 10:35 a.m., Orange police officers were dispatched to a vacant home in the 300 block of Highland Avenue on a report of an unresponsive person,” Fennelly said Monday, Dec. 5, in a press release. “Arriving officers discovered the body of an unidentified female inside the building. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:22 a.m. The cause of death is pending an autopsy by the regional medical examiner’s office.”
“I’m praying for our city,” said the Rev. Bill Rutherford of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Orange on Tuesday, Dec. 6. “We have so much potential that goes unrealized. I don’t know the circumstances of that person’s death. But it’s a tragedy and all of us have to be committed to making sure tragedies like this cease to be a part of our daily lives.”
Rutherford was not the only person in the city to express concern.
“My phone and email were blowing up yesterday from all the calls and messages from people wanting to know what’s going on because they thought it happened in the West Ward but it actually happened in the South Ward,” said West Ward Councilman Harold Johnson on Tuesday, Dec. 6. “Highland Avenue is on the south side is the South Ward and on the north side it runs into the West Ward. The location of that house is literally the northernmost part of the South Ward and five houses down from where the mayor lives. It’s literally in the neighborhood where the mayor lives.”
“A lot of people over the years … have been mum about the crime, gangs and gun violence going on in the city … because the crimes scenes have mostly been in the North Ward and East Ward,” Johnson continued. “But now it’s hitting close to home. I don’t know if other towns are starting to have success reducing their crime and crime rates by pushing criminals into Orange, but something bad is going on here. Just from a layman’s standpoint, it seems like the level of crime has ratcheted up in the last few years. And it’s not just homicides. The people are getting fed up.”
Johnson said concerned Orange residents are looking to their elected officials for answers.
“The mayor’s brother (Todd Warren) got confirmed as police director and he’s got the most important job in town,” Johnson said. “Maybe they do have some strategies that the council doesn’t know about. … We’re kind of handcuffed, in terms of talking to our constituents, because I literally don’t know.”
Johnson reiterated that Director Warren has a tall task ahead of him.
“Orange has to work better with Irvington, East Orange and Newark, to find out what’s going on. It seems like Orange has become an oasis for crime. Irvington is scaring the hell out of criminals. They’re not sitting back and waiting for crime to happen. We need to do more, because all this nonsense is hitting close to home.”
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