Arrest made in hit-and-run that injured top NJ cheerleader last month

✅ A Newark Arts High School cheerleader was struck trying to get to her Uber

✅ The squad had returned from winning a championship at a competition

✅ Driver Mia’Jah Burton was charged with hitting her and leaving the scene

NEWARK — The driver of a vehicle that struck a cheerleader as she got off a bus parked in front of Arts High School returning from a tournament has been found and charged.

The Newark Arts High School senior, identified by family as Chiara Jones, was struck in front of the school on Feb. 4 as she tried to cross Martin Luther King Boulevard to meet her Uber driver, according to Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens. She was taken to University Hospital.

Mia’Jah Burton, 33, of Newark, was arrested on March 1. She is charged with third-degree leaving the scene of a crash resulting in serious bodily injury; third-degree endangering and injured victim, fourth-degree assault by auto; third-degree hindering and fourth-degree false report to law enforcement.

Burton is being held in the Essex County Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing.

Stephens did not disclose how Burton was identified and located.

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A good day

Jones' squad, the AHS Jags, had just returned from the Impact Cheer and Dance Challenge in Toms River where they placed in first place. The squad was scheduled to compete in a national championship in Florida.

The 18-year-old victim was identified by her cousin as Chiara Jones.

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