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IRVINGTON, New Jersey (WABC) -- Police are investigating after a teenager was fatally shot in New Jersey Wednesday afternoon. The victim's backpack sat in the middle of street after the shooting, which happened just before 3 p.m. on Clinton Avenue in Irvington. Police responded and rushed the victim to University Hospital in Newark where he was pronounced dead. He was identified as Marquise Jenkins, a student at Irvington High School. The school is located nearby, and it is possible the victim was on his way home at the time. There was a heavy police presence in the area.

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — An arrest was made Sunday in a sexual assault and home invasion that rocked a quiet New Jersey town. Police said 40-year-old Muhammad Sharif of Irvington was taken into custody on Saturday, eventually arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and burglary.

MAPLEWOOD, New Jersey (WABC) -- Police in New Jersey are searching for a suspect and warning residents after a young woman was followed home and sexually assaulted. The home invasion and assault happened around 11:30 a.m. in Maplewood. Authorities say the preliminary investigation indicates that the man followed the victim home, forced his way into her house and sexually assaulted her. She was transported to an area hospital, where she was treated and released. The suspect remains at large.

— To Alexis Simms, a custodian at Augusta Elementary School, it was "just a cub, the cutest thing you had ever seen." But to animal control officers and the local police who had tracked it for more than an hour through the closely packed backyards of this Essex County town, it was an addled and frightened black bear that had reared up as if to charge. Taking no chances, the police shot and killed the 218-pound bear about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. It was the second bear in five days to be killed after wandering into an urban area where a...

NEWARK (WABC) -- Four men are in custody in connection with last week's deadly carjacking at the Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey. The four have been charged with murder, felony murder, carjacking, conspiracy, possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose. They are being held on $2 million bail each. The suspects have been identified as 29-year-old Hanif Thompson, of Irvington; 31-year-old Karif Ford, of Newark; 32-year-old Basim Henry, of Newark; and 33-year-old Kevin Roberts, of Newark. Dustin Friedland, a 30-year old lawyer from Hoboken, was shot in the head Sunday night inside the...

CBS 2 Was On The Scene As One Suspect Was Taken Into Custody Police captured four suspects overnight in the shooting that killed a Hoboken attorney at the Short Hills Mall last weekend. At a news conference Saturday morning, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said Hanif Thompson, 29, of Irvington; Karif Ford, 31, of Newark; Basim Henry, 32, of Newark; and Kevin Roberts, 33, of Newark, had all been charged in the Sunday attack. They were all charged with murder, felony murder, carjacking, possession of a weapon, carjacking Bail was set at $2 million for each man.

Former Irvington Mayor Michael Steele rejected a final plea deal from the state Attorney General Friday and will now stand trial in October for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars in kickbacks while he was business administrator for the local board of education. Steele, 53, is accused of working with two contractors to inflate prices and of accepting at least $120,000 in kickbacks in two separate schemes between 2003 and 2007. The state has charged him with nine counts, including official misconduct, pattern of official misconduct and bribery. ... But if he were to enter a guilty plea, "his entire pension,...

NEWARK, Aug. 25 - With its gangs, police shootings and struggles to modernize, this city seems to have enough problems. Now it has one more. Dewey Street used to be a proud middle-class neighborhood, a chamber of peace and quiet in Newark's gritty heart. But last year when the state cleared out tracts of land to build a school, most of the families were driven away. And now that the money for the school has evaporated, more than three dozen lots sit abandoned, one after another. James Searcy is one of the last residents here, a 74-year-old man with milky...

Teacher, cop charged with gun trafficking Friday, February 18, 2005 NEWARK - A schoolteacher and his wife, who is a police officer, were arrested Thursday as part of an undercover operation to crack a gun trafficking ring that included the teacher's brother-in-law, authorities said. Five rifles were sold for $9,200 over the course of the investigation, according to court papers. FBI agents found a 9mm handgun in the coat pocket of the teacher, William Mayes, as he was preparing to leave home for his ninth-grade class at Success Academy, part of West Side High School in Newark, Special Agent Steve...

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) _ Atlantic City has become the fourth school district in New Jersey to recognize Muslim holidays. The city's board of education approved districtwide days off for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, two sacred Islamic holidays, for the upcoming school year. Previously, under state law Muslim students and teachers were allowed to take off Islamic holidays without being penalized. According to Superintendent Fredrick P. Nickles, about 560 of the city's 7,800 children are Muslim. Board member Cornell Davis, who is Muslim, called the decision ``courageous'' in light of current tensions between Americans and Islamic extremists. ``It shows...

Student gun sales armed N.J. gang, authorities sayAn indictment alleges collegians were used to funnel dozens of weapons from an Ohio store to Newark.By Troy GrahamInquirer Staff Writer   Federal prosecutors in New Jersey have indicted the owner of an Ohio gun store and three members of a violent Newark street gang in the first gun-trafficking case of its kind.The merchant sold guns to intermediaries, all of them students or former students at Wilberforce University, a small private school in Ohio. The students then funneled the guns to the Double ii Bloods street gang, authorities said.The case, which will...

<p>WASHINGTON -- New Jersey's U.S. attorney told Congress yesterday that violent street gangs represent a growing public threat and must be attacked with the same force and methods used against traditional organized crime families.</p> <p>Christopher Christie's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee came as his office in Newark announced charges against an East Orange man they said helped provide firearms to gang members in Newark and other parts of Essex County.</p>

Group sues on behalf of child in paper Gun Incident Irvington case reopens zero tolerance debateWednesday, March 05, 2003 BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH AND REGINALD ROBERTS Star-Ledger Staff The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization, is taking a second New Jersey school district to court for what it sees as overzealous school officials overstepping their bounds in handling student conduct. The institute filed a lawsuit against the Irvington Board of Education on behalf of one of two boys arrested nearly two years ago under the district's "zero tolerance" policy for playing with a paper gun. The suit, filed last...