After Car Drags Livingston Officer During Shoplifting Arrest, Woman Gets 8 Charges

LIVINGSTON, NJ — After a Livingston police officer was "dragged" by a car while trying to arrest two shoplifting suspects on Aug. 10, a second suspect has been arrested, police said this week.

Police said that at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 10, officers responded to Ulta Beauty at 530 West Mount Pleasant Ave., on a report of a shoplifting in progress by two women.

Ulta Beauty employees told police they had seen the two suspects hide $2,000 in perfumes in bags and leave without paying.

Police stopped a 33-year-old woman from Newark who was walking out of the store, they said. They charged Rafiyya Nafeesah Welton, 33, with shoplifting.

Police then found the other woman in the driver’s seat of a 2005 Honda Accord parked in front of the store, they said.

But according to police, "As officers were attempting to place her under arrest, she put the vehicle in gear and rammed a police vehicle and knocked over/dragged the officer while doing so."

The officer was taken to the hospital for his injuries. The suspect fled "at a high rate of speed," police said.

On Tuesday, police gave an update.

They said they had identified the second suspect as Najirah Burgess, 32, of Newark.

They issued a warrant, then arrested her last Friday, Aug. 26.

She was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, robbery, shoplifting, obstruction, resisting arrest, eluding, attempted aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, and escape, police said.

She was taken to the Essex County Jail.

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