Cranford hit-and-run: Funeral held for 1 of 2 teens killed in alleged stalking attack

Families mourn teen girls after hit-and-run

FOX 5 NY's Richard Giacovas reports live after the mother of one of the teen girls in Cranford, NJ who was killed in a hit-and-run speaks to the public.

CRANFORD, N.J. - Family and friends gathered in Union County Friday for the funeral of Maria Niotis, one of two teen girls killed in a hit-and-run attack in Cranford earlier this week. A service for Isabella Salas will be held over the weekend.

The families of the victims are continuing to call for justice for the alleged killer.

RELATED: Families of Cranford teens killed in hit-and-run demand justice

Families of Cranford teens killed in hit-and-run demand justice

The families of Maria Niotis and Isabella Salas, the two girls killed in Cranford, N.J., earlier this week, are demanding justice. On Thursday, they urged prosecutors, neighbors and the community not to dismiss the case as an accident but to recognize it as "murder in the first degree."

Family, neighbors say girl was stalked

What they're saying:

Family and friends claim that the alleged driver had been planning this attack for months, and that family and neighbors' repeated warnings about him were "never taken seriously."

One resident told FOX 5 NY that the alleged driver had been parked outside of the girl's home for several months before the crash.

At a press conference this week, Maria Niotis' mom called her "the kind of girl who could walk into a room and light it up just by being herself."

Comments on Niotis' obituary called her a kind and incredible soul. Loved ones described Salas as a kind, generous, gentle" girl. Others said she "was able to make everyone’s day brighter."

RELATED: 

• Driver fatally mows down teen girls he was allegedly stalking in NJ
• Families of slain Cranford teens call deadly crash ‘murder'

Cranford hit-and-run crash

The backstory:

The crash happened around 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29. 

Police said a black Jeep SUV hit the girls while they were riding e-bikes. Officers said the force was so strong that they were thrown more than 100 feet, and that the SUV dragged one of the bikes for about half a mile.

Police chief related to suspect

Dig deeper:

Officials haven't identified the alleged driver because of his age. Earlier this week, however, Christopher Battiloro, chief of police in nearby Westfield, New Jersey, announced in a Facebook post that he was related to the accused teen. The Westfield Police Department responded to the crash on Monday.

Battiloro said he was "shocked, stunned, and so overwhelmingly distressed beyond belief," by the attack, and that he lives in the neighborhood where the crash happened.

"While social media has made it known that the accused is related to me, he is not my son and not a member of my immediate family," Battiloro wrote. "I want to be clear, as loud and as firm as possible, that in NO WAY do my wife, children or I condone, defend, or excuse the actions that caused this terrible and tragic loss of life."

Battiloro said Salas was his neighbor, calling her "a beautiful, charismatic young lady… who I have watched grow up since the day I moved to Cranford." 

"We will honor the lives and legacies of these two young ladies, Isabella and Maria Niotis, together.  And we will survive this horrible tragedy together," he wrote.

What's next:

Salas' visitation is on Saturday in Cranford.