MAN HELD IN STUDENT’S DEATH PAROLEE FACES MURDER CHARGE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, April 14, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Edition: All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A 23-year-old Spring Valley, N.Y., man on parole for possession of a loaded weapon was being held without bail Saturday in the stabbing death of Kissinger Shiimi, a Ramapo College student leader.
Peter Ralph Finley, who police say is a Jamaican national, was arrested in Brooklyn on Friday. He was charged with second-degree murder and was being held in the Rockland County Correctional Center pending a hearing.
Shiimi, a 30-year-old senior majoring in political science, died about 5:30 a.m. April 6 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, N.Y. He had been stabbed five times by one of two men arguing with him over a fender bender outside the Atlantic Gas ‘n Go, a Spring Valley gas station and convenience store, police said.
Tom M. Jones, Ramapo College’s director of public relations, said Finley’s arrest is a relief to students who have been grappling with the violent death of Shiimi, whom they regarded as a peacemaker and bridge-builder.
Hinyangerwa Asheeke, Namibia’s ambassador to the United Nations, on Friday escorted Shiimi’s body back to Namibia, the southwest African country where Shiimi fought oppression, then escaped to come to the United States to build a better life.
Asheeke was Shiimi’s uncle, but they first met about a month ago at a reception celebrating Namibia’s first year of independence from South Africa.
At Ramapo, Shiimi won the Aly Makwaia Scholarship named for an African student at the college who was stabbed to death in 1987.
On the day he died, Shiimi and two fellow students had gone to a nightclub in Spring Valley. They stopped at the gas station about 4:30 a.m., when the car the three were traveling in tapped the bumper of the other car. Police refused to say who was driving the car that carried Shiimi.
Two men in the other car argued with Shiimi and one stabbed him, police said. The men, along with a woman in their company, fled in a red Nissan with a white stripe. Police described both men as having Jamaican accents, and said one had a gold front tooth. It was unclear from police reports Saturday whether Finley has a gold tooth.
At the Spring Valley Police Department’s request, detectives from the New York Police Department’s 70th Precinct in Brooklyn had been checking the home of Finley’s relatives on Sterling Street, said Sgt. Mary Wrensen, a city police spokeswoman. They found Finley there about 8:30 p.m. Friday. He had an airline ticket to Florida, police said.
Police are looking for the other man and the woman. No further details of the investigation were available.

Keywords: NEW JERSEY; COLLEGE; STUDENT; MURDER

FDU STUDENT HURT IN FIGHT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 20, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

An 18-year-old Fairleigh Dickinson University student who was kicked in the face and knocked down a flight of stairs during a fight in a Teaneck dormitory Saturday was in stable condition after an operation to remove blood on his brain, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Gerald P. Romano of Bristol, R.I., was unconscious when he arrived at Hackensack Medical Center at 12:30 a.m. following the fight in a dormitory hallway, Teaneck Police Officer Veronica Thornton reported.
Romano had a blood alcohol content of 0.21 percent, according to the report.
Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said his office wants to find out what caused the fight. But he said he does not expect anyone to be charged with a crime.
Witnesses told police that Ricardo Carter, 19, of East Orange kicked Romano in the face and knocked him down the stairs of the Linden 3B dormitory.
One of the witnesses, Candace Mitchell, 18, of Clearwater, Fla., said in an interview Saturday that Romano had been involved in a fight minutes earlier with Scott Barrett, 18, of Teaneck.

Keywords: TEANECK; COLLEGE; STUDENT; ASSAULT

N.Y. COUPLE ACCUSED OF DEFRAUDING COLLEGE

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, October 20, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A former assistant director of financial aid at Ramapo College of New Jersey and her husband were arrested Friday, accused of defrauding the college of $3,410 in financial aid grants.

Gloria and John Prentzel of Greenwood Lake, N.Y., were released on their own recognizance after arraignment before Judge Marguerite T. Simon in Superior Court in Hackensack. Prentzel was charged with theft by deception; his wife was charged with assisting a theft.

Detective Sgt. Fred Landsky of the state police Official Corruption Unit said he investigated the couple after a routine audit of the financial aid office by the Mahwah college showed that Mrs. Prentzel, 31, had approved a fraudulent financial aid application in the summer of 1989 by John Prentzel, 27, who was her fiance at the time.

Landsky said she approved the application despite knowing that her fiance listed a New Jersey address to lower his tuition fees, lied when he said he was a full-time student, and had annual income that made him ineligible for financial aid.

Landsky said Mrs. Prentzel resigned from her position at the college in September.

SHOTS FIRED IN FDU MELEE; 5 injured in violence after party in Teaneck

By David Voreacos and Michael Allen, Record Staff Writers | Saturday, September 15, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Gunfire and violence erupted early Friday after a student party at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, injuring five people and prompting the suspension of evening social activities in the Student Union Building.

A festering rivalry between Hackensack and Teaneck residents who are not students sparked the fight, which broke out about 1:25 a.m. after 200 attended a party in the Student Union sponsored by Alpha Phi Alpha, a black fraternity on campus, authorities said.

Police and students said two groups of outsiders who attended the party tossed trash cans and threw punches in front of the building. An unidentified gunman then fired about six shots from an automatic handgun, scattering the crowd and hitting the Student Union three times.

Witnesses said about two dozen people were involved in the fight.

No one was hit by gunfire, but Kendal Brown, 24, of Teaneck was hit on the head with a pipe. He was in serious condition Friday at Holy Name Hospital. Charles Daniels, 26, of Teaneck was in good condition with a stab wound to the chest.

Police had made no arrests by late Friday afternoon.

University officials suspended social activities in the Student Union, where many parties are held, and suspended Alpha Phi Alpha, pending a hearing next week to assess the group’s responsibility.

FDU also will study ways to tighten campus security, a spokeswoman said.

“It’s the outside community coming on campus,” said senior Jason Harris, president of 100 Black Men, an FDU student group. “This has been an ongoing problem, but last night it really got out of hand. “

Alexander McLucas Jr., a 19-year-old FDU student, suffered a bruised collarbone while fleeing the scene, and Ilyas Ali, 25, of Teaneck suffered a back laceration when someone attacked him with a beer bottle, police said. Both were treated at Holy Name and released.

Reginald Allen, a 36-year-old campus security guard from Hackensack, was cut on a leg with glass but refused medical treatment.

Three hours after the shooting, police confiscated a revolver from the car of Anthony Christopher Brown, an 18-year-old FDU student from Huntington Station, N.Y. No charges were filed Friday against Brown.

Caption: PHOTO – ED HILL / THE RECORD – Alexander McLucas Jr. of Newark was injured in the FDU brawl.