โฆโฆโฆโฆโฆ.Vincent Battiloro, the 18-year-old New Jersey man accused of intentionally killing two 17-year-old girls.
Just one day after the crash, before his arrest, Battiloro went live on a YouTube video game stream and bragged about the negative comments he was receiving.
His twisted reasoning for keeping the stream going was financial profit from online engagement. On the live broadcast, he told viewers: "The more you guys engage in the chat, the more you give me engagement and I get paid for YouTube... Y'all are just giving me engagement, that's fine."
The two victims, Maria Niotis and Isabella Salas, did absolutely nothing wrong to him. They were best friends riding an electric bicycle down a street in Cranford, New Jersey.
The attack was entirely one-sided, and the motivation stems from alleged stalking and an inability to handle rejection:
* Stalking Allegations: According to the families and their attorneys, Battiloro had been aggressively stalking and harassing Maria Niotis for months leading up to the tragedy.
* Prior Harassment: The family's lawyer revealed that Battiloro had allegedly targeted the Niotis home in "swatting" incidents (calling in fake, high-stakes emergency threats to the police to send armed officers to their house) just weeks before the attack.
* The Escalation: Law enforcement sources state the deliberate crash appears to have stemmed from a previous dispute or a severe reaction to a breakup/rejection.
While toxicology reports regarding any substance use at the exact moment of the crash have not been detailed by prosecutors, neighbors and family members described his mental state as highly unstable, with family members calling him a "loose cannon". Police records show his parents had previously called authorities to their home because of his volatile behavior.
The physical evidence reveals a high degree of premeditation and intent, rather than a random accident or a temporary drug-fueled blackout:
* The Setup: Police obtained Battiloro's own vehicle dashcam footage. The video shows him driving his Jeep Compass to the neighborhood, parking, and waiting near the home of one of the victims.
* The Execution: When he spotted the two girls riding past on their e-bike, the dashcam shows him making a sharp U-turn, accelerating heavily to chase them down, and hitting them at a high rate of speed before fleeing on foot.
* The Coverup: He initially lied to police, claiming he had been carjacked by an armed man in a red mask before the crash happened. His own vehicle's camera completely exposed this as a lie.
Because he was 17 years old at the time of the September 2025 crash, his name was initially withheld. However, the court officially transferred his case to adult court. He has been officially charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree murder and is being held in jail without bail while the case moves to a grand jury.
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