The family of an 18-year-old fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver in Linden in April has added a $15,000 reward for information that identifies the vehicle.
The total reward now stands at $25,000, after Union County Crime Stoppers previously pledged $10,000 for information that leads to an indictment or conviction in the death of Rayan Bien-Aima.
Bien-Aima, of Rahway, was hit as he tried to cross Routes 1 & 9 northbound at the intersection with Aviation Plaza North at about 11:15 p.m. on April 25.
He’d just gotten off work at Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers across the highway a little further south on the southbound side and was headed to meet his mother at a laundromat, according to Edward Capozzi of Brach Eichler, a law firm aiding the family.
The teen called his mother to say he was off work, and she said she doing laundry across the street and Bien-Aima said it was okay, he’d make the walk.
Bien-Aima made it across the southbound lanes, but was still crossing the northbound lanes when the light turned green and a fast-moving northbound car swerved around a vehicle still stopped at the light and struck the teen.
He never emerged from unconsciousness and died on July 2 in a local hospital.
Linden police have said the vehicle, last seen heading north, was a dark colored coupe or sedan. Capozzi said it may have been an Infiniti model.
The high school junior, who immigrated to the country from Haiti when he was 7, was scheduled to take the oath of U.S. citizenship in June, and wanted to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He was active with a Marine Junior ROTC program at school.
Capozzi said police found pieces of the car at the scene and the firm created a flier that it’s sent to all auto body shops within a 100-mile radius of Linden. He and the family hope it will jog someone’s memory.
“Maybe that gives us a lead,” Capozzi said.
“Even the smallest bit of information could be the missing piece of the puzzle that brings Rayan’s killer to justice,” Linden Police Chief David Hart said in a prior statement about the crash. The department has also said, from its study of the debris left behind, that the driver had to have known the car hit something.
“Anybody that is a human being you should have stayed and make that the person you accidentally hit is being taken care of,” the teen’s father, Gregory Bien-Aima, told ABC7 before his son passed away.
Bien-Aima is survived also by two brothers and two sisters, and a number of relatives, his obituary says. His services were held in late July in East Orange. A friend created a GoFundMe to aide the family.
Police ask anyone with information to call Linden police Investigator Ryan Zaccaro at 908-474-8505 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 908-654-8477 or www.uctip.org. Information can also be reported to the Brach Eichler firm by calling 973-364-8311.
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.