Accused Galloway Killer Wants Lower Bail

A Galloway man accused of throwing his infant daughter off a bridge last year appeared in a Central Jersey court Monday to seek a bail reduction.

Shamsiddin Abdur-Raheem has been jailed on more than $2 million bail. On Monday, he appeared in a New Brunswick court seeking a lower bail amount. According to published reports, the defense did not name a figure.

Abdur-Raheem faces six criminal counts related to his daughter’s killing. Prosecutors say the man abducted the 3-month-old from her grandmother’s East Orange home on Feb. 16, 2010. He assaulted the 60-year-old grandmother and ran her down with a van as he made off with the infant.

Abdur-Raheem, then 21, then drove to the Driscoll Bridge in Middlesex County and allegedly threw Zara Malani-lin Abdur into the Raritan River. The baby’s body was found April 24, 2010.

The crime occurred, authorities said, as the Zara’s mother was in court seeking a restraining order against Abdur-Raheem.

Grand jurors indicted Abdur-Raheem on six counts in August 2010. He faces charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of aggravated assault. (Click on the PDF, right, to view the indictment.)

Abdur-Raheem and the baby’s mother, Venetta Benjamin, were both students at Richard Stockton College, where they met. He was a criminal justice major, and she graduated with an economics degree in 2009.