A child is dead, found in a torched vehicle near a New Jersey high school, and a man is charged with arson, authorities said Friday.
Cops initially received a 911 call about a fire near Sayreville High School around 10:45 p.m. Thursday. As they were responding, another call came in reporting a related domestic dispute. Police responded to Eisenhower Drive, where they encountered a woman who said a domestic dispute led to Manuel Rivera, 43, leaving the home with their son.
Authorities found Rivera alive, but with burns to his body and a self-inflicted wound at Washington Road, near the back of Sayreville High School, officials say. Next to him was a vehicle on fire; it had been doused in gasoline.
Rivera was taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries. A preliminary investigation revealed the body of a child in the burned-out vehicle. Prosecutors haven't definitively identified the body as that of the 9-year-old at this time.
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Neighbors are in disbelief about what happened in their community.
"Very happy kid -- very energetic -- my son likes to play with him," said neighbor Leo DaSilva. "It's very sad, very sad."
Rivera has been charged with murder, second-degree aggravated arson, endangering the welfare of a child and desecration of human remains.
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Rivera is a Sayreville Public Schools employee, and the child attended Wilson Elementary.
"It is with great show and sorrow that I report to you that a Wilson School student was tragically killed last night in a car fire behind Sayreville War Memorial High School," the district's superintendent said in a statement to families. "The child’s father, who is an employee of the Sayreville Public Schools and was the driver of the vehicle, survived and is now being treated for the life-threatening injuries that he sustained."
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sayreville Police Department at 732-727-444 or the Middlesex County prosecutor's office at 732-745-3289.
It wasn't immediately clear if Rivera had an attorney who could comment on the arson allegation.
