What to Know
- A New Jersey father of two was shot and killed as he drove through his neighborhood Labor Day morning
- His young son was in the car at the time of the shooting and survived
- Neighbors were shocked and gathered throughout the evening to remember the man they say had no enemies
A car crashed through a fence and slammed into a building in a New Jersey neighborhood on Monday morning, moments after the driver of the car was killed, according to family and witnesses.
Neighbors and friends say James Kargbo’s young son was a passenger in the car when Kargbo was killed just after 11 a.m. on Labor Day. Kargbo was hit and crashed a short time later, leaving behind a trail of wreckage in North Brunswick’s Somerset Park apartment complex.
The chaotic scene, just feet away from a playground, stunned neighbors and friends.
“I don’t want to live out here anymore. There’s a lot of kids out here in this complex, in this neighborhood,” Suad Rahman, a friend of Kargbo’s said.
Another friend, Bernard George, said the crash happened where his kids wait for the school bus.
“Luckily today is a holiday,” George said. “It could have been the kids waiting for the bus when something like that happens.”
Local
About a quarter mile away from where evidence markers lined the street Monday night, Kargbo’s Saturn sedan had run off the road and careened into a doctor’s office. A short time later, the father of two was pronounced dead.
Somerset County prosecutors declined to confirm the name of the victim or how he was killed, saying only that the office and Franklin Township police were "conducting a homicide investigation in Franklin Township involving a male adult victim."
More information on the case, including how the man was killed, is expected to be released on Tuesday.
Word quickly spread in the neighborhood that Kargbo’s son was a passenger in the car. He witnessed the final moments of his father’s life but luckily survived.
“I don’t know what to say because that is really traumatizing to a child,” Rahman said.
Outside Kargbo’s home on Monday, family and friends gathered throughout the evening. They were still stunned by the Labor Day morning killing of a man they didn’t know to have any enemies.
“When I learned this morning, I actually burst into tears because he’s a good friend,” George said.
Police are searching for the killer, but there's no word of a motive or suspects in the mysterious death.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say that family and friends said the driver was killed.
