NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—According to a press release, New Brunswick Police Department (NBPD) officers apprehended two suspects that were “fleeing from the scene of a burglary” during the early morning hours of November 30.
“The suspects were being chased by one of the victim/residents… as the officers arrived and took the two suspects into custody,” reads the release.
The incident took place just a block away from the Rutgers University campus, but students did not recieve one of the school’s infamous “crime alerts.”Â
The burglary took place on Guilden Street near the intersection with Hamilton Street, according to police radio transmissions, but the suspects were arrested two blocks away.
The press release says that, at 3:45 am, patrol officers “responded to the area of Hardenberg and Somerset Streets” where they made the arrests.
The suspects were identified as Alpha Sesay, a 27-year-old man from Somerset, and Miguel Zavaleta, a 19-year-old man from New Brunswick.
Both were charged with burglary, robbery, and theft, and then taken to the county jail on $50,000 bail.
The release said that the residents “were awaken by noises” in their home, and “encountered two men in the adjoining room disassembling electronics belonging to the occupants.”
“One of the suspects attempted to strike one of the victims as he fled the scene.”
The two men were caught, but only after one of the victims chased them for at least two blocks.
According to the release, officers recovered a duffel bag outside of the victims’ home that was “packed with other electronics, games, and food taken from inside the residence.”
The crime occurred in the city’s Sixth Ward, but the suspects were apprehended in the Fifth Ward, near Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and The Aspire.
Despite their promise to publicize serious crimes in the Fifth and Sixth Wards of the Hub City, the Rutgers community was not alerted to this incident through the university’s “crime alert” system.
The university has previously declined to publicize several violent incidents, even when they are within sight of the campus and students are the victims, on the grounds that suspects were quickly apprehended.
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.
