U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an arrest detainer for an illegal immigrant from Mexico who is accused of being a serial rock-thrower.
Hernando Garcia-Morales, 40, allegedly fractured the skull of an 8-year-old girl after throwing a baseball-sized rock into a school bus in New Jersey, according to police.
Garcia-Morales, of Palisades Park, New Jersey, was arrested earlier this month after throwing the large object at the bus. The rock shattered a window and hit the 8-year-old student. The bus was returning from a class field trip on the New Jersey Turnpike in Teaneck Township, according to New Jersey State Police.
The state police and other agencies investigated the Jan. 7 incident. Two days later, Garcia-Morales was arrested at a self-made campsite within Old Croaker County Park in Bergen County. The investigation also linked Garcia-Morales to multiple rock-throwing incidents in Bogota Borough, Bergen County, authorities said.
State police arrested Garcia-Morales for aggravated assault, resisting arrest and possession of a weapon.
The Bogota Police Department also charged him with aggravated assault, criminal trespassing-defiant, criminal trespassing peering, and criminal mischief-damage property, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Garcia-Morales has an extensive criminal history while living in the sanctuary state of New Jersey. In 2023, he was arrested for burglary. In 2006, he was arrested for possession of a weapon and theft. He entered the country at an unknown date and time.
“Violently targeting a school bus full of children is extremely wicked and heinous,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “Hernando Garcia-Morales should have never been in this country, let alone released after multiple arrests into New Jersey communities.”
According to authorities, on Jan. 7, the school bus was traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike to Yeshivat Noam, a local Jewish day school, returning from a field trip at Liberty Science Center.
The young girl, a third-grader at the school, was struck in the head. She needed surgery, but was the only one injured in the school bus assault, The New York Post reported.
Garcia-Morales allegedly hurled the rock off an overpass, which shattered one window on the bus traveling on the highway below. Police are still investigating the possible motive. The yellow bus did not have any identifiable markings that it was from a Jewish school.
