By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 3, 1991
The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS | Page B01
A 50-year-old man wanted for masterminding the kidnapping of a Union County businessman for ransom two years ago was shot and wounded by one of two U.S. marshals in North Bergen as he waved a stick of dynamite at them, authorities said.
Julio Sosa Rodriguez of Jersey City was holding a lighter to the dynamite, threatening to ignite it, and refusing the agents commands to drop it, said Arthur Borinsky, U.S. marshal for New Jersey.
The shooting occurred about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of 14th Street and Paterson Plank Road, said township police Lt. Timothy Kelly.
The marshals learned that Sosa was going to be in the area and, accompanied by local authorities, approached a van where they suspected he was hiding, said Bill Licatovich, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington.
When they told Sosa to come out, he emerged holding the dynamite, authorities said.
Sosa, who was shot in the upper torso, was in custody at the Jersey City Medical Center on Wednesday. A hospital spokesman said he was in stable condition.
He was wanted on a Sept. 7, 1989, complaint of kidnapping and illegal possession of firearms, said Union County First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Lapolla.
On Sosa’s order, Nydia Gonzalez Melendez and Hese Ayala, also known as Johnnie Ayala, kidnapped George Sanchez of Elizabeth in Union City on Sept. 1, 1989, Lapolla said.
Sanchez had a business in Union City, Lapolla said.
Sosa was in phone contact with the two men as they tried to get Sanchez’s wife to pay a $100,000 ransom.
The call to Sanchez’s wife, made by Gonzalez, was traced to a pay phone in Hoboken, and he was arrested there.
“When [Gonzalez] didn’t return,” Lapolla said, “the victim convinced Ayala that he had taken off with the ransom money, and he persuaded Ayala to take him home, that he would give him money.”
Ayala was arrested when he got to Sanchez’s home.
Both men pleaded guilty and are serving prison terms on kidnapping charges.
Sosa, however, was not seen again until Tuesday.
Keywords: KIDNAPPING; SHOOTING; NORTH BERGEN; POLICE; BOMB
ID: 17357143 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)
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