Bloomfield Man Charged After Hit-And-Run Kills 17-Year-Old Newark Girl

A Bloomfield man has been arrested in connection with the crash that killed 17-year-old Zakiyah Dansby in Newark last weekend.

Authorities say Erik Montesinos, 26, was behind the wheel of a gray sedan traveling at a high rate of speed along Bloomfield Avenue around 8:52 p.m. on Sunday, August 9.

According to investigators, an unmarked Newark Police Ford Explorer was traveling in the opposite direction when Montesinos' car passed at a high rate of speed. The officer made a U-turn.

Shortly afterward, authorities say Montesinos struck Zakiyah near Bloomfield and Mount Prospect avenues.

The officer stopped to help the teenager and called in the crash, but Zakiyah was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say Montesinos left the area after the collision. Later that night, he contacted Newark Police's Second Precinct, told officers he had been involved in a crash and surrendered.

He is now charged with vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death, and endangering an injured victim.

But there is still another part of this case under investigation.

Because a Newark police vehicle had turned around shortly before the fatal crash, the New Jersey Attorney General's Fatal Police Encounter Unit opened a separate investigation into the circumstances surrounding Zakiyah's death and whether it legally qualifies as a death during an encounter with law enforcement.

That investigation is separate from the criminal case against Montesinos.

Zakiyah was just 17 years old. Her death has sparked grief in Newark and calls from community members for answers about exactly what happened in the moments leading up to the crash.