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Authorities this afternoon obtained an arrest warrant for 42-year-old Shawn Custis, with a bail of $750,000, and then arrested him around around 5:30 — less than an hour later — on 10th Avenue in one of the 200 blocks of Manhattan’s Inwood section north of the George Washington Bridge.
Custis was released from state prison last December after serving 22 months for a string of burglaries in Essex, Mercer, Middlesex and Burlington counties, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.
He was identified during a joint investigation of the Millburn Police Department and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Task Force, and arrested by FBI Violent Fugitive Task Force and Essex detectives.
“It was a horrific and brutal crime and detectives and the FBI did a really good job cooperating together to bring this individual to justice,” Anthony Ambrose, the Essex prosecutor’s chief of detectives, told nj.com.
Custis last Friday broke into the woman’s house, where she was with her two young children, then punched her several times and threw her down the stairs, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Millburn Police Chief Gregory G. Weber said. The woman’s 3-year-old daughter watched in horror while her baby brother slept upstairs, they said.
The woman’s teeth were chipped, she sustained a concussion and she needed several stitches on her face. Taken in the attack were jewelry — including the woman’s wedding ring — and valuables, authorities said.
The warrant charges Custis — a career criminal who uses the aliases “Shawn Custic, “Shawn Custie” and “Shawn Hustis” — with first-degree attempted murder, robbery, burglary and two counts of child endangerment.
Records show at least 12 felony convictions on a criminal record that dates back nearly 20 years.
PHOTO ABOVE: Courtesy NJ Dept. of Corrections
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