According to the criminal complaint, on October 18, 2021, Hayer Abdi from Jersey City was in the vicinity of Ocean and Fulton avenues when James Robinson, also known as “Banks,” approached him from behind and hit him in the head with an aluminum bat.
Abdi, who was 32 years old and had sustained severe and permanent injuries, passed away on May 16th, three weeks ago.
According to the criminal complaint, Robinson was taken into custody for numerous drug-related charges just a couple of weeks after the assault. The complaint stated that the entire incident was captured on surveillance footage. Robinson accepted responsibility for the second-degree aggravated assault charge and is currently serving an 8-year prison sentence that is subject to the No Early Release Act.
According to court records, Robinson had previous drug convictions before he attacked Abdi. In 2018, he managed to escape from a halfway house in Newark just over a year into a three-year sentence for his drug-related crimes.