JERSEY CITY —Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio announced on Thursday that Miguel Ortiz, 25, of Fairmount Avenue in Jersey City was arrested in Brooklyn early Thursday morning as the alleged shooter in the Dec. 30 murder at the Ringside Lounge on Tonnele Avenue in Jersey City.
DeFazio said Ortiz is charged with shooting Adrian Gerena, 23, of Irvington, in the forehead and chest in the back bar area of the Ringside while he was playing cards with another man. The other man was shot in the arm and suffered a non-life threatening injury.
DeFazio said Ortiz was arrested around 4 a.m. Thursday morning inside an apartment building on Pitkin Avenue in Brooklyn, where he had been staying with a female acquaintance unaware of his status. DeFazio said Ortiz’s arrest was the result of information gathered by DeFazio’s office, New Jersey State Police and Jersey City and New York City police.
On the night of the shooting, there was another man with Ortiz. DeFazio said that individual, Felix Y. Rodriguez, 28, of Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City, was arrested Tuesday night at his home by the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force. Rodriguez is charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon by a felon, and hindering the apprehension of Ortiz. DeFazio also said there is a man being sought in connection with the Dec. 30 murder who allegedly drove Ortiz and Rodriguez away from the Ringside Lounge after the shooting.
DeFazio said Ortiz and Rodriguez have both been identified as alleged members of the notorious Latin Kings street gang.
DeFazio said Ortiz will appear in court in New York by this weekend and can waive extradition back to New Jersey or fight to remain in New York.
Anyone with additional information about the murder can call the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office’s Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345. – RK
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
