Arrest made in shooting death of Cliffside Park baseball player outside Passaic bar

Louis Morilla (R.I.P.)

It was about 45 minutes after the stroke of the New Year when officers stopped a car in Wallington carrying Farad Anthony, 20, of Passaic and arrested him.

Police said they’d been searching for Anthony, who apparently fled to Maryland, since October. Officers with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force, who have been extremely active in North Jersey recently, played a key role, bringing along muscle from the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.

The bullet “was not even sent out for him,” said a friend who was with when their group got into a brawl with another that he said came up on them.

“They kept provoking the fight,” he said, “so we fought. Then the next thing you know I hear a loud bang and I see my boy on the floor, bleeding.”

As morning came, witnesses said, police kept Morilla’s body draped in a blood-stained sheet in the parking lot of a strip mall next to the club at Main Avenue and Chestnut Street.

Anthony is charged with murder, among other counts. Bail was expected to remain at $1 million.

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