The man who is charged with stealing a Livingston Public School bus was charged on Monday and new details about the case were revealed in the court filings released by the Department of Justice.
BaderAlzahrani, 22, of SaudiArabia, is charged by complaint with one count of receipt of a stolen vehicle and one count of transportation of a stolen vehicle, according to U.S. attorney Philip Sellinger. Alzahrani made his initial appearance earlier this week in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, on January 15, a break-in was reported in an unoccupied residential home on Hillside Avenue in Livingston. Officials believe a fire extinguisher (the same kind supplied on Livingston’s school buses) was used to break into the home. During a search of a backpack in that home, law enforcement officials saw a Saudi Arabian passport with the name Bader Alzahrani, along with other items that appeared to belong to Alzahrani.
Among the items were journals that contained entries in both English and Arabic. According to Arabic translators’ review of the journals, excerpts included derogatory and violent remarks about Jews, police, and white people. They included, “Why didn’t you slaughter the police officer who threw the Quran?,” “This is a war, and there will be losses, and collateral losses,” as well as “Blood, blood, destruction, destruction. Allah.”
The journals also noted that Alzahrani, who was in the U.S. on a student visa but left the university where he was enrolled and was reported missing in October of 2022, did not intend to return to Saudi Arabia.
On January 17, the Livingston Board of Education reported that a school bus had been stolen from a parking lot across the street from the unoccupied residential home where the break-in was reported. Law enforcement officers locatedAlzahrani in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and was later found to be in possession of the keys to the stolen school bus.
Each count charged in the complaint is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sellinger credited the Livingston Police Department, under the direction of Chief Gary Marshuetz, as one of many departments who helped with the case.
