newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

New Jersey police are no longer looking for three assassins who fatally shot a young Pakistani-American woman and injured her husband as they walked along Cedar Street in Boonton with their three-year-old son Tuesday night.

The young couple had just broken the Holy Ramadan fast the night of the shooting and was walking to the home of Nazish Noorani’s father when gunshots rang out in the quiet, mostly Pakistani neighborhood. The wife was shot four times, with one bullet piercing her heart. Her husband, Kashif Parvaiz took four bullets to his shoulder and ankle. Their son was unharmed but was covered in his parent’s blood. Noorani and Parvaiz were visiting Boonton, Noorani's hometown, from their home in Boston, Mass. when she was killed.

During a press conference Friday morning, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi announced that there are two people they believe are responsible for the death of Noorani, and those people are Parvaiz, her husband, and Antoinette Stephen. Bianchi said both Parvaiz and Stephen have been charged with murder, conspiracy and weapons offenses. He added that Stephen and Parvaiz plotted the murder for “some time.”

Stephen, 26, of Billerica, Mass. was arrested by U.S. Marshals Friday morning and is being held in lieu of a $5 million cash bond while she awaits extradition to New Jersey. In addition to murder, conspiracy, and unlawful possession of a weapon, Parvaiz is also facing child-endangerment, and hindering apprehension or prosecution charges. Bianchi said he would not disclose Paravaiz' location for security reasons. The 27-year-old, who was being treated at Morristown Medical Center for his injuries, has a $1 million cash bond.

Early in the investigation, Bianchi said detectives were leery of the husband, who changed his story several times before he cracked and confessed to his role in the cold-blooded assassination of the mother of his children. Initially, Parvaiz told officers that three man shouted racial epithets and called them terrorists before firing upon he and Noorani then walking away. He described the assassins as black, and white, then he changed the descriptions to all black and said it was a drive-by shooting, the Daily Mail reported.

Lubna Choudhry, Noorani's sister did not believe that. Choudry, who lives two doors away from the site of the shooting, said she never saw anyone run off and did not see a car. Several members of the victim’s family expressed their suspicions about Parvaiz' involvement in the senseless crime within hours of the shooting, ABC News reported. According to Gothamist.com, Noorani allegedly sent a relative a text message that indicted she knew her husband was going to kill her someday.

"If you should find me dead someday... It was Kashi. He wants to kill me," the text allegedly read.

Investigators say the marital strife between the couple was due to an alleged affair Parvaiz was having, and that Stephens’ name appears on the mailbox at Parvaiz’ Boston apartment. Raul Santamaria, who lived in the couple's Boston apartment building, told The Star-Ledger that Parvaiz was either "divorced or getting a divorce" and that he saw him with a woman who was not his wife weeks before the shooting, wrote the New York Post. The woman Parvaiz was seen with has not been clearly identified as Stephen. All Santamaria could recall about the woman, whom Parvaiz introduced to him to as his new girlfriend, was that she was an Indian and 30 to 35-years-old, the Daily Mail reported.

A Boston police report obtained by The Star-Ledger said officers were called to Parvaiz' East Boston apartment on Feb. 25 where they found a woman crying and having difficulty breathing. She alleged that Parvaiz accused her of being unfaithful before slapping and pushing her, then preventing her from leaving the apartment. Parvaiz agreed they argued, but denied hitting the 20-year-old woman, and said he may have “accidentally pushed her," NJ.com reported.

The assault and battery charges Parvaiz faced from that incident were dropped a month later when the victim, of New York, did not appear in court, the Suffolk County, Mass., District Attorney's Office said.

Noorani's family said Parvaiz did not work and that despite a background check they ran on him, which exposed lies about colleges he attended, Noorani married him anyway. A cousin said the couple's six-year marriage was extremely violent and that Parvaiz lied a lot. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native was reportedly attending Harvard as an architectural engineering graduate student. However, an official of the Ivy League University told ABC News they had not been able to locate a record for a student with Parvaiz’ name.

Neighbors reacted with shock upon hearing that a crime so heinous could've happened in their neighborhood. Many told WPIX 11 News that violence was not the norm in their quiet community. Residents that knew Noorani had nothing but praise for the young mother of two, described as a pleasant woman who doted over her sons. Noorani planned to return to college and study criminal law.

In a statement released late Friday night, Bianchi lauded the work of attorneys, detectives and support staff from the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, and the New York City Police Department whom he said all worked tirelessly and spared no expense or manpower in hunting down the alleged perpetrators in order to bring some measure of justice to Noorani and her family.

Bianchi also thanked the Billerica police chief and his staff for their hospitable and professional cooperation as New Jersey law enforcement officials worked to locate and arrest Stephen.