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Bail Reform: Freed On Double Gun Rap, Young Paterson Man Shoots, Kills Another, Authorities Say

UPDATE: A 19-year-old Paterson man who’d been released under bail reform after police said they found him and two companions carrying a pair of guns during a traffic stop was charged in the subsequent murder of a 20-year-old city resident.

Rasheed Thomas

Rasheed Thomas

Photo Credit: PASSAIC COUNTY PROSECUTOR

Rasheed Thomas was with two other men when city detectives stopped them for running a stop sign in May and found two 9mm handguns in the vehicle, authorities said at the time. Thomas initially resisted but was eventually subdued and taken into custody, they said.

Police sent him to the Passaic County Jail before a judge ordered Thomas's release soon after under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law.

Shortly before 3 a.m. Sept. 11, a mortally wounded Elijah Wilson was found at the corner of East 18th Street and Fulton Place. Wilson was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:59 a.m.

Thomas, his accused killer, was captured in Elmwood Park without incident over the weekend by a team of Paterson and borough police, the Passaic County prosecutor’s detectives and U.S. Secret Service members, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Paterson Police Chief Ibrahim Baycora said.

He was returned to the county lockup, charged this time with murder and weapons offenses, pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson.

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