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Nicholas Battaglia, a 25-year-old pizza maker and window washer, apparently was taking potshots at people “for fun,” Detective Capt. Thomas Salcedo told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.
The first victim, a 31-year-old woman walking with her 9-year-old daughter through the Pizza Hut parking lot at Essex and State streets across from Battaglia’s apartment, said she heard a shot and “felt a burning sensation in the back of her leg” around 9:15 p.m. on March 11.
A second shot and “luckily missed her and the child,” Salcedo said, but it left a chip in the window of the restaurant.
A week ago, another person walking through the same lot “felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg” and discovered that a pellet had pierced his jeans and his skin, the captain said. His bookbag also took a shot, Salcedo said.
“At the time we didn’t know whether it was a drive-by or from a stationary position,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Detectives canvassed area and this week hit on an apartment diagonally across the street from the Pizza Hut.
They knocked and immediately spotted the box for an air rifle inside, Salcedo said. The weapon — the same model as pictured above — was recovered, he said.
Battaglia was taken to headquarters, along with his sister, Rebecca.
Coincidentally, Battaglia most recently worked making pizzas at a Woodstone Bar & Grill.
Battaglia was being held on $75,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with two counts of aggravated assault, a pair of weapons offenses and tampering with evidence — by trying to hide the rifle, Salcedo said.
Rebecca Battaglia, 30, was released on a summons charging here with obstruction and conspiracy to hinder apprehension.
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