Crime

Three people were injured and Cedar Grove Lane as closed for about one hour during the evening of Aug. 14 after a three-car collision. Police said that at shortly after 5 p.m., a 2001 Nissan Altima driven by Jeffrey Georgiana, 55, of Somerset was traveling north on Cedar Grove Lane when it collided with a 2007 Honda Odyssey, driven by George …

Aug. 3 During the daytime hours a residence on Church Street was burglarized by an unknown actor. There were no signs of forced entry. Approximately $3000 in electronics and other property was taken. During the morning hours an unknown actor broke the window of a vehicle parked on Easton Avenue. The approximate value of the window was $250 Sometime during …

  Up to 300 township youths who are spotted doing good deeds by Franklin Township police will be rewarded with a free Slurpee drink. The FTPD is participating in the 21st annual Operation Chill by 7-Eleven, a national community service program. The coupons are used to “enhance relations with the young people of their cities by rewarding them for good …

The Rutgers University chapter of Black Lives Matter Aug. 9 launched an online petition demanding that the names of the officers involved in the April 9 Diahlo Grant shooting be made public. “Black Lives Matter Rutgers and the Grant family demand that the Andrew Carey, the Middlesex County prosecutor, release the names of the officers,” reads the petition, which is …

A township woman was killed Aug. 6 after she was involved in an automobile crash on Cottontail Lane, near Weston Canal Road. Police said that Adejoke Sanusi, 53, of Somerset, was pronounced dead at the scene after she was extracted from her Toyota Rav 4. Sansusi was driving a Toyota Rav 4 on Cottontail Lane around 12:30 p.m. when it was …

A Franklin Township success story received a nod earlier this month  from an unlikely source: the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In an interview by NPR’s Steve Instep, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that the communications model used by township police and Franklin’s African-American community is successful and should be replicated in other parts of the country. The comment came …

The Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries said July 21 that he will call for a federal investigation of whether a Franklin man’s civil rights were violated when he was killed in a shootout with township police. Several hours later, unrelated to Soaries’ statement, the Rutgers University chapter of Black Lives Matter took to the streets in New Brunswick, marching and chanting …

A 23-year veteran of the township police force has developed a self-defense course geared to young women preparing to strike out on their own. In addition to his experience as a police officer, Capt. Greg Borlan is also a 4th Degree Black Belt in Combat Hapkido, from which he has culled some key defensive moves for his class, called “PINKS,” an acronym …

A Middlesex man was killed early in the morning of July 18, after his car hit a patch of trees and overturned along Easton Avenue. Police said 61-year-old Pedro Vazquez was entrapped in his Toyota Rav 4 after the 3:45 a.m. crash, and was unconscious and unresponsive when he was extracted. Vazquez was taken to an area hospital, where he was …

Several dozen members of the township’s Sierra Leonian community gathered at Hempstead Gardens July 16 to remember one of their own killed there last year. Francis Vandy was found by police June 30, 2015 lying in a parking lot at the apartment complex off Route 27, the victim of a gunshot wound to his head. Vandy was pronounced dead at …