Off-duty Rutgers-Newark security officer shot to death at nightclub
Newark NJ July 26th, 2023 An off-duty Rutgers-Newark security officer and Marine Corps veteran died in a weekend shooting outside a North Ward nightclub, authorities said.
Police, dispatched to a 3:15 a.m. shooting on Saturday, July 22, outside the North Ward’s Marbella Lounge on Broadway, found 32-year-old Carlos Manuel Zayas semi-conscious with a gunshot wound to his chest.
Zayas was rushed to University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:51 a.m. while being treated in the emergency room, county Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens and city Public Safety Director Fritz Fragé said in a prepared release.
The victim’s mother, Newark resident Blanca Caraballo, confirmed her son worked for Rutgers and was a Marine Corps veteran. She declined further comment, saying: “There’s an investigation and (police) detectives did not tell me it was okay to speak to anyone about (Carlos).”
One of Zayas’s friends, reached Monday, suggested he may have “gotten some extra work doing security” at the nightclub. Another friend said Zayas “maybe got shot helping somebody else who was in trouble. That’s something he’d do.”
No one from the Marbella Lounge was available for comment on Monday. A woman who answered the nightclub’s phone said she was aware of the fatal shooting, but had no information about Zayas.
According to his social media profile and online posts, Zayas has been a full-time Rutgers-Newark security officer, patrolling university facilities and campuses in Newark, since 2015.
Zayas previous worked for a private security firm while he continued his education. He earned a 2014 graphic arts-design certificate from Jersey City’s Anthem Institute, and a 2012 associate’s degree in journalism from Essex County College.
This came after he returned to New Jersey from a four-year, nine-month stint in the U.S. Marine Corps. where he volunteered for three tours to Iraq. He served as a food-service specialist for fellow Marines stationed there.
Detectives from the prosecutor’s Homicide-Major Crimes Task Force continue to investigate this fatal shooting, the city’s 34th homicide since January 1st.
Witnesses to Saturday morning’s shoot, or anyone with useful information, may anonymously contact the county Prosecutor’s tip line at 1-(877) TIPS-4EC or 1-(877) 847-7432.
