Paterson man arrested in fatal city shooting
Jim Norman
PATERSON — A city man was arrested Thursday morning on a murder charge in last week's fatal shooting on the street known as the "Boulevard of Death" in the violence-ridden 4th Ward, authorities said.
The suspect, Raazon Lightly, was arrested at Governor and Carroll streets after he was seen by officers in a marked police car, city Police Director Jerry Speziale said.
Speziale said the officers identified Lightly from a photograph in a wanted flier they were carrying. Lightly was charged initially with obstruction of a criminal investigation after he falsely identified himself as "Jamal Robinson," Speziale said.
Lightly was subsequently charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons possession, Speziale said. He was being held in the city jail.
Two other men, who were not immediately identified, were arrested earlier in the week and charged with conspiracy in connection with the shooting, the police director said.
The victims in the Nov. 18 fatal shooting were driving in a red Cadillac on Rosa Parks Boulevard about 2:45 p.m., when shots were fired at them, police said. More shots were fired at them after they turned right onto Godwin Avenue, where they crashed into a parked car, police said.
The passenger, 31-year-old Antonio Johnson, died from his wounds at the hospital, police said. He lived on the same block where the shooting occurred, sources said.
The driver, Otis Johnson, 26, was wounded multiple times and was in critical but stable condition at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center, police said.
There's no indication the shooting stemmed from a long-standing feud between some young men in the city's 1st and 4th wards, authorities said.
Antonio Johnson was the 18th individual killed in a shooting in Paterson this year. The city has had two other homicides; they involved a stabbing and a physical assault.
Otis Johnson was the 77th person wounded but not killed in a shooting in the city this year. Paterson's current total of 85 shootings this year surpasses the 79 such incidents that occurred in 2015. Thirty-five shootings have been in the 4th Ward, including at least 13 along Rosa Parks Boulevard.