by Sharon Adarlo and James Queally/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday September 09, 2009, 8:30 PM
Ed Murray/The Star-LedgerNewark police director Garry McCarthy holds press conference near the site of a fatal stabbing on Market and Broad streets today.
NEWARK -- A day after a 22-year-old East Orange man was fatally stabbed on one of Newark's busiest streets, police said they tracked a city resident to his sister's home and charged him in the brazen attack.
Police entering the Huntington Terrace residence this afternoon found Jerod Wise standing near a window as if to escape, but the 26-year-old calmly surrendered instead, authorities said at a press conference. Wise now faces murder and weapons charges in the Tuesday afternoon stabbing of Curtis Johnson on Broad Street.
"With all the evidence we had, it was downright stupid," Police Director Garry McCarthy said of the daylight attack that horrified schoolchildren and shoppers as they watched Johnson stagger and fall to the ground.
The stabbing, the 48th homicide in the city this year, occurred at 3:25 p.m. in front of the Persuasion clothing, police said.
"Wise saw the victim and decided to take care of business right there and then," McCarthy said.
After he was stabbed in the neck, Johnson stumbled to a nearby bus stop at the Market Street intersection and collapsed.
A woman with him tried to stop his bleeding, but witnesses said the victim flow from his wound was heavy. Johnson was later taken to University Hospital in the city, where he died a short time later, police said.
Today, Johnson's older sister said she was surprised to hear police had identified Wise as a suspect.
"I'm cool with this person who apparently did it to him" Monique Johnson, 31 of Newark, said of her friendship with Wise.
McCarthy said the motive behind the attack is still under investigation, but it may have stemmed from a dispute the previous night between Johnson and Wise.
A family friend said Tuesday's attack was sparked by a Labor Day incident in which Johnson and two unidentified friends tried to "jump" Wise.
"It was a revenge thing," according to city resident William Love, 40, who said he had known the victim since he was a child. "Sosa is a good guy, too, but he was going through some real tough times."
Video: Man stabbed to death at Newark bus stop
Police said Wise also went by the alias Sosa. Mourners gathered today at a memorial at Broad and Market streets also said they recognized Wise's street name of Sosa.
The memorial was set up in a doorway just a few feet from the bus stop where Johnson collapsed. A white T-shirt hung in the center of the alcove, serving as a place where family and friends could write their goodbyes. A red bandanna was placed above the shirt, and a collection of red and white candles were lit below.
Friends remembered Johnson as a hard-working young man who was trying to turn his life around. A family associate who identified himself only as "Banks" said Johnson was working as a waiter at an IHOP restaurant and he was training to be a boxer in his spare time.
Investigators from the police homicide squad and the Essex County Prosecutor's Office developed leads in the case from witness statements and forensic and video camera evidence, McCarthy said.
The director said there is a constant police presence at Broad and Market streets, where officers made 10 narcotics arrests just minutes before the fatal stabbing.
"That individual probably picked the worst place in America, except the White House, to do a crime," Booker said.
Investigators searched for Wise at nearly a dozen locations until they tracked him down at his sister's South Ward home, police said. They said the suspect's sister was crying when authorities arrived.
She led police to her brother, who then gave himself up, city Detective Alfreddy Fletcher said.
Wise, who has been arrested more than a dozen times before and has and five felony convictions from narcotics and weapons related offenses, is charged with murder, possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, police spokesman Detective Todd McClendon said.
"Newark, New Jersey, is not going to allow this kind of activity to go on," Mayor Cory Booker said. "If people choose to cross that line, we'll bring those people to justice."
Standing a few feet from the sidewalk where his friend was killed, Love reflected on the consequences of today's arrest and the lasting mark it will leave on the families of both the victim and the suspect.
"Nobody wins," he said. "Sosa can't pick up his kids tomorrow, and a mother will never see her son again."
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