Husband charged with Pakistani wife’s murder in New Jersey

The husband of a young Pakistani mother shot and killed in the neighbouring state of New Jersey as she pushed her 3-year-old son in a stroller on Tuesday was charged with her murder on Friday after admitting that he set up the attack, The New York Post reported, citing authorities.
Kashif Pervaiz, 26, who was walking with his wife Nazish Noorani, (27) when the attack occurred in Boonton, New Jersey, also was charged with conspiracy, weapons offences and child endangerment, the report said. A woman named Antoinette Stephen, who arrested on Thursday in Billerica, Massachusetts, was charged with murder conspiracy and weapons offences, the Post said.
She’s believed to be the shooter, though Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi wouldn’t say who pulled the trigger, according to the report.
Bianchi said Pervaiz’s story began to unravel as he continuously changed it.
He originally said three men, one black, one white and one of an uncertain race, called the couple terrorists before opening fire, according to the report. Later, he told detectives it was three black men, according to an affidavit.
Pervaiz, of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, who was also wounded, then admitted that he was angry at his wife because she made negative comments about his family. And then he began admitting his role in the attack.
He said it was an accident, that he didn’t mean for his wife to die and that he didn’t want to go to jail.
Pervaiz also said he didn’t want to be the person responsible for looking at his children and tell them he was the one who took away their mother, according to the affidavit.
Pervaiz said he contacted Ms. Stephen to get her help, according to the Post. The two met in Brooklyn and discussed his turbulent relationship with Noorani.
Ms. Stephen agreed to help him and they came up with the plan in which Pervaiz would take Noorani on a walk.
Stephen would then kill Noorani and wound Pervaiz, according to the affidavit. Pervaiz suffered superficial wounds in the attack.
They finalised the arrangements in a cellphone call on Tuesday, the day of the attack. Ms. Stephen called Pervaiz at 9:30 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The shooting took place a little after 11 p.m.
Noorani’s relatives said she lived in fear of Pervaiz, whom they blasted as an abusive philanderer who has lied to them about aspects of his life, from his college degrees to his contracting business.
But, according to the Post, most concerning was an ominous text message she allegedly sent her older brother just a month ago.
‘One day you’ll find me dead and it’s going to be Kashi who did it, so save this text. You’ll need it’, she wrote to her brother Kaleem Noorani, according to a cousin.
‘Kashi doesn’t want to be with me, he abuses me’.
The affidavit said investigators were told Pervaiz physically abused Noorani and had extramarital affairs, which Pervaiz confirmed to them.
He also was known to have owned a firearm at one point, according to the affidavit.
Pervaiz is being held on a $1 million bail and Ms. Stephen is being held in Boston on a $5 million bail, authorities said.