Authorities investigate fatal altercation at West Orange bar

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino and West Orange Police Chief James Abbott announced July 5 that authorities are investigating an incident in which a 57-year-old male was fatally injured at a bar in West Orange on July 4.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on July 4, West Orange police officers were dispatched to a bar on White Street on a report of an unconscious male. Arriving officers located an unresponsive male on the sidewalk. The male, who has been identified as Luis Alberto Bruzzon-Villanueva, of Orange, was transported to Saint Barnabas Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:10 p.m., according to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas S. Fennelly, of the Prosecutor’s Homicide Unit.

The investigation, which is being conducted by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Homicide Task Force and the West Orange Police Department, indicates that Bruzzon-Villanueva was involved in an altercation in the bar. No arrests have been made at this time and the investigation is active and ongoing, according to Fennelly.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Homicide Task Force at 977-847-7432.

There is no further information available at this time.