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Working with Passaic police, Detective Michael Latona identified and arrested 38-year-old Robert DeJesus of Passaic, with assistance from fellow Garfield Detective Sean Delahanty and Officers Mario Pozo and Marc Amos, at 6:45 p.m.
Less than nine hours earlier, authorities said, DeJesus pulled the victim from his car and beat him at the Ackerman Avenue bridge in Garfield.
The driver and his 64-year-old passenger told police they were headed into Garfield from Clifton just after 10 a.m. when DeJesus made a right turn in front of them from the left lane in a green, two-door 1997 Acura CL, Police Capt. Darren Sucorowski said.
The 6-foot tall, dark-skinned driver, believed to be in his 30s, “made some sort of obscene gesture to them and proceeded southbound on River Drive in front of them,” Sucorowski said a few hours after the assault.
When they reached the red traffic signal at the intersection of River Drive and Monroe Street, the captain said, DeJesus got out of the Acura, opened the driver’s side door of the victim’s car and pulled him out. He then punched the elderly man several times in the face, knocking him to the ground, Sucorowski said.
The woman tried to intervene and was thrown against the car, he said.
Several witnesses ran to help as the assailant got back into his car and sped off on River Drive toward Passaic Street. They gave his license plate number to police.
The injured man was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center for treatment of his injuries. Then Latona went to work.
DeJesus was being held on $75,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with aggravated assault.
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