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Questions Follow Pair Of Murder Arrests In Paterson Drive-By

Authorities announced Wednesday that they’d charged both the accused gunman and his alleged wheelman in a drive-by Paterson shooting that left one man dead and two injured this past summer.

Nasiera Jones, Jordany Santana

Nasiera Jones, Jordany Santana

Photo Credit: INSET: Courtesy PASSAIC COUNTY PROSECUTOR / PHOTO: Googlemaps

Jordany Santana, 19, opened fire on a crowd outside the Riverview Terrace high-rise complex on Presidential Boulevard the night of Aug. 22, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald said in a brief release.

Driving, they said, was Nasiera Jones, for whom they didn’t disclose an age or town.

The pair ditched the car they were using and fled in another vehicle, the release says.

Both men are charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder and weapons counts, including being convicted felons in possession of firearms, it says.

The announcement was the first time that Valdes and Oswald disclosed that an arrest had been made in the two-month old shooting – and that Santana was the accused gunman.

The picture is muddled further by their announcement a week ago that Santana had been charged with weapons offenses in connection with a June 12 incident that they didn’t explain.

SEE: Paterson Street Shooting Produces Two Arrests

Like Santana, Jones was already in custody when the murder charges were drawn – although, again, neither Valdes nor Oswald said why, other than to cite “unrelated matters.”

Both remain held in the Passaic County Jail, they said.

All three victims were taken to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center after the Aug. 22 shooting at 125 Presidential Boulevard.

Two of them -- Santos Lantigua, 38, of Jersey City and 19-year-old Shadire Scott of Paterson – eventually were released after treatment.

However, Xavier McCray, 25, of Paterson died two hours after the 7 p.m. shooting, authorities said.

DRIVE-BY: Three Shot, One Dead, Outside Paterson High-Rise Complex

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