Man left 6-year-old in SUV overnight in Jersey City, cops say

JERSEY CITY — A man is charged with endangering after, police say, he left a 6-year-old girl inside an SUV parked on a city street all night.

A St Peter's University security guard found the girl inside the SUV, parked on Montgomery Street in front of the university's Gannon Hall just after 11 a.m. on Sunday, according to Jersey City police spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione.

A freelance photographer for the Jersey Journal, Joe Shine, said a witness told him the driver of the SUV parked the vehicle and walked away around 1 a.m.

The girl was determined to be in good health, according to Wallace-Scalcione.

Zakaria Moustafa, 51, was charged in connection with the incident. Wallace-Scalcione would not disclose his relationship to the girl.

In a separate incident, on Monday authorities announced the mother of a 21-month-old Lakewood girl they say was left inside a hot car in her driveway for more than two hours — and later died — has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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