TRENTON – The Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team is conducting an investigation into an incident yesterday in which a man who was arrested by State Police on I-287 drove his head through the window of a troop car after being secured in the rear of the car. The man collapsed after breaking the window with his head.
The man, who has been identified as Kenwin Garcia, 25, of the 100 block of South 6th Street, Newark, remains in the intensive care unit of Morristown Memorial Hospital.
According to a preliminary investigation, Trooper Victor Pereira responded to a report of a man walking on the southbound shoulder of I-287 in Hanover Township. Pedestrians are prohibited on the interstate highway. Pereira stopped the subject about 6 p.m., and placed him under arrest after positively identifying him as Garcia and learning that he was wanted on outstanding arrest warrants, including a 2006 warrant for theft involving the Newark Police Department. After Pereira handcuffed Garcia and placed him in the rear of the troop car, Garcia became belligerent and kicked the rear passenger side window, breaking the window and the frame. A second trooper, David Jenkins, arrived to assist Pereira in moving Garcia from the damaged troop car to a second troop car. After a struggle, in which both troopers used pepper spray on Garcia, the troopers placed Garcia into the second troop car with both his hands and feet cuffed. After they placed Garcia into the second car, Garcia is alleged to have arched his back and driven his head through the rear driver side window, shattering the glass. Garcia then collapsed. An ambulance was called to the scene.
Garcia has been charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and criminal mischief in connection with the incident.
The incident remains under investigation by the Attorney General’s Shooting Response Team. Under an Attorney General directive, deputy attorneys general and detectives from the Division of Criminal Justice, as well as detectives from the State Police Major Crime Unit, are dispatched to the scene to investigate shootings and other incidents involving the State Police or certain other law enforcement agencies.
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