Rock thrown through window showers boy with glass

NEWARK – Georgette Berkshire was doing some work on her laptop early Saturday morning when she heard a loud crash and saw a rock flying through herfront window on North Fifth Street.

Her first thought was of her 11-year-old son, Benjamin, who was sleeping on the couch just beneath the window. She scrambled to her feet and saw a large rock had been thrown through her front window, leaving shattered glass everywhere, including all over her sleeping son.

"The first thing I thought was it was a drive-by shooting," Berkshire said. "He's 11 years old and he was asleep, and all of a sudden there's glass laying all over him. It's just sad. ... I was thinking, what if that that glass hurt him? That's my baby you know?"

Benjamin was uninjured during the incident; his blanket shielded him from most of the glass, Berkshire said.

Benjamin, too, thought there had been some kind of shooting.

"I woke up when I heard my mom crying and then I saw the glass everywhere. I thought my mom got shot," he said.

Berkshire filed a report with Newark police but was frustrated that more couldn't be done.

Sgt. Paul Davis, with Newark police, said he understands that frustration. The department has been following up on at least 70 vandalism reports from Saturday when residents woke up to find their cars damaged from BB guns.

More calls continued to come in Monday morning, and Davis said he wouldn't be surprised if they had about 90 by the end of it. Three people were arrested in that incident, an 18-year-old man and two 16-year-old boys.

In that case, a witness was able to provide a vehicle description that led officers to the suspects, but in Berkshire's case there doesn't appear to be any witnesses. Unfortunately, that makes it incredibly difficult for officers to make an arrest, Davis said.

"There's not a whole lot we can do. Sometimes people think we can just pull arrestees out of a hat, but 99 percent of the time it's hard unless we get a witness or something like that," he said. "It's important, especially if there's kids in the house, but there's not a whole lot we can generate on something like that."

Berkshire thinks it's possible the damage at her home was related to the teens' vandalism spree, but she's not sure. Regardless, she wants to see someone held accountable for what happened, especially considering what could have happened to her son had things gone differently.

"What if that rock would have hit him in the head? What if that glass would have stabbed him? It was two layers of glass. ... It's just terrible. I'm really hurt by this and I'm scared something's going to happen again."

emaddern@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @emmaddern