Crime & Safety
After Third Day, Still No Decision in Case of Galloway Man Accused of Throwing His Daughter Into Raritan River
The trial judge charged the jury for a third time Thursday afternoon.
After asking the judge to once again charge them on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 6, the jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of a Galloway man accused of throwing his three-month-old daughter off a bridge on the Garden State Parkway following a third day of deliberations, nj.com is reporting.
Shamsiddin Abdur-Raheem is accused of murdering his daughter, Zara Malani Abdur-Raheem, by throwing her off the Alfred E. Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State Parkway 140 feet in the Raritan River. He has admitted to throwing his daughter into the river, but the jury is charged with determining if Abdur-Raheem committed murder, or if the child was already deceased when he threw her into the river.
Abdur-Raheem allegedly broke into the home of the infant's grandmother, where the baby lived with her mother, according to nj.com.
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Abdur-Raheem is said to have struck the grandmother, 60-year-old Leno Benjamin, in the head, choked her and kidnapped his daughter. He went south on the Parkway, and stopped on the Driscoll Bridge and threw the baby out of the passenger window of the vehicle he was driving, 140 feet into the Raritan River. He later told police he "put his daughter into the river."
In addition to the murder of his daughter, Abdur-Raheem is charged with attempted murder for his assault on Benjamin, kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child and several counts of aggravated assault, according to nj.com.
