NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A New Jersey corrections officer on Wednesday was charged with shooting his girlfriend and another woman to death in Newark, authorities said.
John Menendez, 24, a West New York resident, is charged with two counts of murder and weapons offenses in the deaths of Anna Shpilberg and Luiza Shinkarevskaya Tuesday night.
Menendez has worked for about the past year at the Hudson County jail in Kearny, authorities said.
According to Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II. the women, both 40-years-old, had been shot to death and were found in different parts of Newark.
Shinkarevskaya was found at 100 Haynes Avenue near Newark Liberty International Airport at approximately 9:53 p.m. suffering from a gunshot wound, the prosecutor’s office said.
Moments later, Shpilberg who was Menendez's girlfriend, was found dead about 9:55 p.m. in the passenger seat of her vehicle in the vicinity of Edison Place and Bruen Street near Newark Penn Station, the prosecutor’s office added.
“The preliminary investigation indicates these are two related homicides at two different scenes,” Stephens said in a statement.