January 30, 2013 (Kearny, NJ) Kearny Police have charged Cruz Martinez Jr., 41, of Hazleton, Pennsylvania with the fatal shooting of Alisha Colon, 16, in her Belgrove Drive apartment. Martinez is currently in the Wilkes-Barrie Jail in Pennsylvania awaiting a court hearing in his hometown of Hazelton, Pennsylvania on an unrelated theft charge. Martinez is expected to be extradited to New Jersey after the court hearing which is now scheduled for February 13, 2013.

Neighbors of Martinez were surprised to hear that he was the suspect in the fatal shooting. Martinez has confirmed that he was a former member of the Latin Kings. It is unknown what the motivation for the fatal shooting was and police authorities have not commented on or discussed details of the shooting with the media.



Earlier this week, Alisha Colon was laid to rest at the Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey after a funeral ceremony at the Thiele-Reid Funeral Home in Kearny, NJ. The funeral home is located across town on the same street where Colon resided and was fatally shot. Mourners wrote messages in a rainbow of colors on Colon's casket at her wake and those messages lit up the casket as it was carried out of the funeral home on its way to the cemetery.