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Efrain Escobar, of the Bronx, had gotten in an argument with the elderly man at Plaza West Mall on Bergen Boulevard just before 7:15 p.m. Monday, April 8, after a minor motor vehicle crash, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Escobar then punched the man in the face knocking him unconscious, leaving him incapacitate at the scene, Musella said.
Escobar had fled the scene by the time police arrived, the prosecutor said.
The victim was rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center with serious injuries and subsequently placed in a medically-induced coma for nearly two months, Musella said.
"Detectives concluded that the suspect was a stranger to the victim, with the attack occurring in connection to the accident and was otherwise unprovoked," Musella said in a news release.
Detectives identified the suspect as Escobar, and on Tuesday, July 9, charged him with second-degree aggravated assault and third-degree endangering an injured person.
On Wednesday, July 10,, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and the Fort Lee Police Department, alongside officers from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Escobar at his home in the Bronx.
He was being held in federal custody in New York, pending extradition to Bergen County.
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