A South Jersey family’s fight for justice continues more than one year after their son was shot while driving home from work. The road rage incident left 30-year-old Kishan Patel permanently disabled.

Now, a former New York Police Department officer is expected to spend a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to shooting Patel.

Patel has spent the last year in a specialized facility in Texas as a quadriplegic with limited brain function requiring around the clock care.

On Friday, May 17, 2024, police responded to a multi-vehicle crash at the intersection of Route 73 and Cooper Road in Voorhees Township, New Jersey. When they arrived, they found Kishan Patel, 30, of Voorhees, suffering from a gunshot wound. Patel was taken to the hospital for treatment.

After analyzing surveillance video, cellphone records and ballistics evidence, Voorhees Township Police and the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office identified Hieu Tran, 27, of Yonkers, New York, as the suspect in the shooting. Police said Tran – an officer with the New York City Police Department – used his department-issued firearm and shot Patel during an apparent road rage incident.

Investigators said Tran was off-duty at the time of the incident and had just left a wedding in the area. After the shooting, Tran “calmly drove north, stopped for gas, went home to New York, reloaded his weapon and went to work the next day,” according to attorneys for Patel’s family.

Investigators said shell casings at the crime scene matched Tran’s department-issued service weapon.

Attorney Joseph Marrone is representing the Patel family who filed a lawsuit against the city of New York alleging that the city knew the former officer had significant mental health challenges with longstanding alcoholism.

“It was known by his superiors and other officers and they did nothing,” Marrone said.

The New York City law department declined to comment but the NYPD confirmed that Tran was terminated from the department.

Tran pleaded guilty to attempted murder and is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 15.

Top priorities as governor

The governor-elect said as soon as she is sworn into office, she will freeze utility costs, but she did not offer any specifics.

“We’ve already had some conversations, I’ve already even during the campaign had some conversations with some of our utility companies, as well as working with some policy experts on exactly what money is coming in through the [Board of Public Utilities], and how it might be used to do that,” she said.

Sherrill said she will also work on a kids online safety agenda, join the lawsuit to push back on tariffs enacted by the Trump administration and begin work on the next state budget.

There are other front-burner issues she said she is planning to pursue.

“Expanding the first time home-buyers credits, so people can get their food in the door, taking on landlords who are colluding to drive up rental prices,” she said.  “Taking on [pharmacy benefit managers], those are the middlemen in drug pricing to drive down drug costs.”

She said she will work to fix the state health benefits plan, improve third-grade reading scores across New Jersey’s schools and lower bloated school administration costs.

Working with Trump

Sherrill, who attacked President Donald Trump’s policies during the campaign, suggested she will put her differences aside and work with him to serve her constituents.

“We haven’t spoken yet, but certainly I’m going to be working very hard to get resources, federal resources back into New Jersey, to discuss and take on the Gateway Tunnel right away because that’s such a key issue and such an economic driver here,” Sherrill said.

On Oct. 16, Trump announced he canceled plans to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River, but U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the project is still under review.

After a knock-down, drag-out fight to the finish, Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated her main rival, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a businessman and former Assemblyman, as well as Libertarian candidate Vic Kaplan and Socialist Worker Party candidate Joanne Kuniansky in the race for governor of New Jersey.

In a contest that drew national attention as a gauge of the Trump administration and a possible preview of next year’s midterm elections, Sherrill, who maintained a slight lead in recent polls leading up to Election Day, was declared the winner by the Associated Press at 9:23 p.m. As of 9:33 p.m., Sherrill had 57.2% of the vote, while Ciattarelli had 42.5% of the vote, according to AP.

Sherrill defeated five other candidates in the Democratic primary election, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, Congressman Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney.

Beth Glennon, from Haddonfield, New Jersey, said she was thrilled Mikie Sherrill will be the next governor of the Garden State.

“I think she represents every single New Jerseyan,” she said. “She listens and she is kind and thoughtful and interested in what happens in everyday life, I think she’ll do a wonderful job.”

Meanwhile, Liz Cericolac, from Bergen County, said she was “stunned” that Ciattarelli lost, adding that he had a better campaign this year.

“He was a smarter candidate, more enthusiastic, more approachable,” Cericolac said. “He campaigned everywhere.”

Both Sherrill and Ciattarelli stressed affordability and tax relief during their first and second debates and throughout the race, which turned out to be the most expensive in state history.

This was Ciattarelli’s third try for governor’s office. His first attempt was in 2017 when he lost the Republican primary to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. Four years later, he came narrowly close to preventing Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy from winning a second term.

In June, he easily defeated four candidates in the Republican primary, including radio talk show host Bill Spadea and state Sen. John Bramnick. Ciattarelli’s election promises included affordability and addressing “loopholes” in the state’s bail reform law. Ciattarelli also said he would do away with the Immigrant Trust Directive, which limited the voluntary assistance state and local agencies can give to federal immigration enforcement.

Addressing supporters at his election watch party in Bridgewater, Ciattarelli said he was proud of the campaign he ran, noting that he visited every municipality in the state and more than 600 diners.

“It is my hope that Mikie Sherrill has heard us in terms of what we need to do to make New Jersey, that place where everybody can once again feel they can achieve their American dream,” he said. “Even though we were not successful tonight, it does not mean we were not successful in talking about the issues that matter.”

Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, federal prosecutor and a current member of Congress representing New Jersey’s 11th District, made accountability a centerpiece of her campaign.