The “coward of a man” 17-year-old driver accused of fatally striking two New Jersey teen girls on their e-bikes was planning the attack for months, the girls’ grieving families said Wednesday night.

The loved ones of Maria Niotis and Isabella Salas insisted the deadly crash was far more depraved than a simple accident, and that the driver was targeting Maria specifically. 4

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“It is now vital that the truth be shared: this was not an e-bike accident, and it was not a hit-and-run,” the families told Fox 5. “This was murder in the first degree.”

The driver, a Garwood resident who has not been identified by Union County prosecutors because he is a minor, was slapped with two first-degree murder charges Wednesday.

He is related somehow to Christopher Battiloro , the police chief

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