The boys, ages 7 and 9, were with their mother and grandmother at a New Jersey Transit station in Ramsey on Monday when the boys moved toward the platform’s edge to see a train, police said.

Authorities said 47-year-old David Howard, of Wyckoff, approached the boys around 2:30 p.m. and put the 7-year-old in a headlock. They said he then grabbed the 9-year-old by the left shoulder and moved both toward the tracks.

The mother and grandmother intervened, and the boys broke free. The women then held Howard for police. 

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Dare I say try a plane? 

"A Newark Liberty Airport security supervisor pleaded not guilty to identity theft Tuesday as new details emerged about his alleged 20-year odyssey of deception, including that he may have assumed the identity of a New York man weeks before the man was slain." 

Stuck in Jersey. Better pick up some essentials: 

"Ex-Marine kills 2, self at NJ supermarket" by Alex Katz and Katie Zezima  |  Associated Press, September 01, 2012


OLD BRIDGE, N.J. — An ex-Marine wearing desert camouflage opened fire at a New Jersey supermarket early Friday, killing two of his co-workers and himself as other terrified employees ran for cover, authorities said.

Terence Tyler, 23, left his shift at a Pathmark store in Old Bridge Township around 3:30 a.m., drove off, and returned 20 minutes later to the closed store with a handgun and an assault rifle, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. About a dozen workers were there.

He first fired outside the store at an employee, who ran inside and warned co-workers as Tyler kept firing and entered the store, Kaplan said. Tyler stopped at one of the supermarket aisles and fired at five  other workers, killing 18-year-old Christina LoBrutto and a 24-year-old Bryan Breen as other workers hid, officials said.

‘‘I do not believe that they were specifically targeted. I believe everybody in the store was a target,’’ said Kaplan.

After firing at least 16 shots, the gunman then drew his handgun and killed himself, the prosecutor said.

Tyler was discharged from the Marines in 2010 after less than two years in the service, the Marines said. His uncle, Christopher Dyson, said he left after suffering from depression.

But Tyler, who lived with his uncle, also a Pathmark employee, was happy with how well he was getting paid, Dyson said. ‘‘He wasn’t sad,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t know what triggered him to do what he did.’’

His cousin, Shanteya Dyson, who lives in New York, said Tyler had been hospitalized during his time with the Marines.

The cousin said Tyler, whose father died when he was young, had not been the same since his mother died of cancer about five years ago.

‘‘That was his best friend. He was always a quiet guy. But he got more quiet. He really didn’t speak at all. He was just blank,’’ said Dyson, 26. ‘‘I wish it didn’t turn out this way.’’

At the top of a Facebook page for a Terence Tyler who says he served in the Marines the same dates as the shooter, there was this slogan: ‘‘Be optimistic. All the people you hate are going to eventually die.’’

Kaplan said he had worked for less than two weeks at the store.

Tyler, who was from Brooklyn, never served overseas, said Marine spokeswoman Captain Kendra Motz. She wouldn’t comment on the circumstances of his discharge.

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And now I'm back in Trenton? 

"N.J. mayor arrested in corruption inquiry; Brother, backer also accused in sting operation" by Geoff Mulvihill  |  Associated Press, September 11, 2012