4 Men Charged In Murder Of Bergen County Man Who Ran Illegal Card Games

HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Four men have been arrested in a shooting that left a Fairview man dead in his apartment Saturday night.

The suspects were robbing the participants of an illegal card game when one of them opened fire, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told reporters, including WCBS 880's Marla Diamond.

Jeronimo Lopez, 50, the operator of the card game, was fatally shot in the kitchen of his Walker Street apartment around 10:45 p.m Saturday, officials said.

"This is something that criminals look to target because we usually do not get complaints from the operator of the card games," Molinelli said.

Molinelli said Lopez had hosted a number of card games, which many locals knew about. Friends of the victim said he held the games to raise money to return to his native Guatemala, Diamond reported.

A couple of the 11 players in Saturday's game were pistol-whipped, Molinelli said. All were robbed of their jewelry, cellphones and a total of about $1,800 in cash, the prosecutor said.

Evens Dumas, 20, of Irvington; Blonson Florestal, 19, of Irvington; Keshawn Malone, 21, of Irvington; and Jose Rivas, 25, of West New York, each face a number of charges, including first-degree murder and first-degree armed robbery. Authorities believe Dumas was the triggerman.

"We believe the victim probably was not interested in giving up his money, but we don't believe there was anything done by the victim that would have prompted Mr. Dumas to fire the weapon," Molinelli said.

The suspects are each being held on $2 million bail and are set to appear in court Thursday.

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