NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ— City police and emergency medical workers were summoned to 274 Somerset Street at 5:26pm after a caller reported a man had been shot.

Mario Lombardo, a 22-year-old man, was shot in the head and remains in critical but stable condition at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.  Authorities have not yet identified the victim publicly, but friends of his confirmed his identity on the NewBrunswickToday.com Facebook page.

So far police have made three arrests in the case, two local men and a city woman, and characterized it as a robbery 

The first arrest came just minutes after the shooting was reported, according to police radio transmissions.  New Brunswick officers engaged in a footchase that criss-crossed the imaginary line that separates Somerset and Middlesex Counties and ended about a third of a mile from the scene of the crime.

Behind a Somerset Street house next to the headquarters of Magyar Bank, officers arrested a twenty-eight-year-old Highland Park man.  That man, Lewis Hooper, has since been charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit robbery, and a gun charge.

Shortly after Hooper’s arrest, authorities searched for and found Chinnikka Lockhart, a resident of Prospect Street in New Brunswick.  Lockhart was apprehended at a house on Home Street in Somerset, just across the county line.  Lockhart was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.

Authorities announced on Sunday that a third suspect turned himself in to city police.

“Mohamad Kamara of the Somerset section of Franklin Township was charged on January 18, 2013, after he voluntarily went to New Brunswick Police headquarters,” read a statement from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Kamara is facing charges of attempted murder, armed robbery, and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, according to the release.

Editor at New Brunswick Today | 732-993-9697 | editor@newbrunswicktoday.com | Website

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.

Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.