TEANECK, N.J. — Two more men from the Bronx have been charged over a violent daytime home invasion in Teaneck in January 2024, in which four adults inside a home on East Tryon Avenue were restrained at gunpoint, one was assaulted with a hammer, and the intruders allegedly threatened to torture and kill a child unless money was handed over, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced. The new charges bring the number of people charged in the case to five, almost two years after the break-in.
Source: Bergen County Prosecutor's Office announcement, via Englebrook Independent News
Musella announced that Alexander Delacruz, 42, and Jerry Perez, 34, both of the Bronx, New York, were identified as additional suspects after an extensive investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the Teaneck Police Department. Delacruz was arrested in the Bronx on October 13 and extradited to Bergen County on October 27; Perez was located and arrested in the Bronx on November 4 and was placed in the custody of New York authorities, the prosecutor's office said. The announcement was published on Sunday, November 8.
Source: Bergen County Prosecutor's Office announcement, via Englebrook Independent News
What the prosecutor says happened on East Tryon Avenue
According to the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, the home invasion happened on Friday, January 12, 2024, at about 3:00 p.m., inside a private residence on East Tryon Avenue in Teaneck. Four adults were restrained at gunpoint, one victim was assaulted with a hammer, and the intruders allegedly threatened to torture and kill a child unless money was surrendered. Reporting at the time, based on Teaneck police, described three gunmen tying up four people inside the home, assaulting and restraining them and stealing valuables before fleeing at about 3 p.m.; the victims suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene, police said then, and officers set a multi-block perimeter and canvassed neighbourhood security cameras, which caught a suspect car heading south on Rensselaer Road, which intersects Tryon Avenue, about 30 minutes before the break-in.
Source: Fox News Digital reporting of Teaneck police accounts, January 2024
The charges the two men now face
On September 22, 2026, Delacruz and Perez were each charged with four counts of first-degree kidnapping and four counts of first-degree armed robbery, the prosecutor's office said. Each was additionally charged with second-degree conspiracy to commit robbery, second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and second-degree armed burglary. First-degree charges are the most serious grade of indictable offence in New Jersey. The charges are allegations: Delacruz, Perez and the three men charged earlier are all presumed innocent unless the charges are proven in court.
How the two were found — two Bronx arrests, a month apart
On October 13, 2026, detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Robbery-Homicide Division located Delacruz in the Bronx, with help from the FBI New York Field Office's Violent Threat Initiative and the NYPD. He was arrested without incident, held in NYPD custody pending extradition, and extradited to Bergen County on October 27 to face the charges. On November 4, 2026, investigators located Perez in the Bronx in a separate operation involving the same prosecutor's division, the FBI initiative and the NYPD; he too was arrested without incident and placed in the custody of New York authorities. The investigation was conducted under the direction of Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Chief Jeff Angermeyer and Teaneck Police Chief Seth Kriegel, with assistance from federal and New York law enforcement, the prosecutor's office said.
Source: Bergen County Prosecutor's Office announcement, via Englebrook Independent News
The first three were charged in July 2024
The two new defendants join three men who were charged in July 2024 in connection with the same home invasion: Brian Arias, Frank A. Salcedo and Francisco Sandoval. The prosecutor's announcement does not give the status of their cases, and Awaaz Punjab is not reporting guilty pleas, verdicts or sentences for any of the five, because none was stated in the announcement. What the timeline shows is the shape of the investigation: three arrests within about six months of the break-in, then a long second phase — more than two years — before the prosecutor's office says it identified two more participants and filed charges against them this September.
Everything the prosecutor's office describes — the gunpoint restraint, the hammer assault, the threat against a child — is the prosecution's allegation, not a court's finding. None of the five charged men has been reported convicted in this case. The victims have not been named by authorities, and the announcement does not state how much money or property was taken.
Why a 2024 Teaneck case still matters in Bergen County
Teaneck is a Bergen County township of commuters about 10 minutes from the George Washington Bridge and roughly 25 minutes from Manhattan — the kind of quiet, residential street where a 3 p.m. weekday break-in, in daylight, with a family tied up inside, stays in a neighbourhood's memory for years. Bergen County and the wider North Jersey corridor are also home to a large Punjabi and South Asian diaspora, for whom home-invasion cases in commuter suburbs are followed closely: the allegation here is not a burglary of an empty house, but an armed crew allegedly entering an occupied home in the middle of the afternoon. A five-defendant case, built over almost three years, is the prosecutor's answer to that January afternoon.
What happens next
Delacruz is in Bergen County facing the charges after his October 27 extradition. Perez, arrested November 4, was in New York custody when the announcement was made, and his transfer to New Jersey is the next procedural step the announcement points to. The prosecutor's office has not announced court dates, bail or detention decisions for either man, or whether the investigation into the January 2024 invasion is now closed. Awaaz Punjab will follow the Bergen County court filings as they are made.