Kashif Parvaiz, Husband Accused Of Planning Hit On Wife, Claimed Killing Was Bias Attack: Cops

MORRISTOWN, N.J. -- A Pakistani-American man whose wife was gunned down while they and their son strolled a quiet suburban street plotted the killing with another woman and told police his family had been attacked by a group of men who called them terrorists, authorities said Friday.

Kashif Parvaiz, 26, suffered non-life-threatening wounds in the shooting in Boonton, N.J., that killed his 27-year-old wife, Nazish Noorani. They were walking with their 3-year-old son to a relative's house when shots rang out Tuesday night. The boy was unharmed.

Parvaiz and 26-year-old Antoinette Stephen, of Billerica, Mass., both face charges of murder, conspiracy and weapons offenses. He also faces child-endangerment charges.

According to Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi, Parvaiz' initial accounts of the attack were inconsistent and immediately raised suspicions.

Parvaiz had told investigators the couple was attacked by a different combination of black and white males who shouted ethnic slurs at the Pakistani couple, authorities said. In his initial story, the group shouted something about the family being "terrorists," authorities said.

Bianchi said investigators were deeply concerned when Parvaiz suggested it was a bias crime, but within hours "it was obvious to investigators that this was sadly the alleged handy work of the victim's husband who allegedly did the unthinkable and plotted to murder his wife."

Bianchi didn't characterize the relationship between Stephen and Parvaiz, but investigators wrote in an arrest affidavit that Parvaiz and Noorani had a turbulent relationship. Authorities said he met Stephen in Brooklyn and the two discussed the murder plot.

Bianchi wouldn't say who pulled the trigger.

The affidavit quotes a text message from Noorani to her brother in which she wrote "Someday u will find me dead but its cuz of kashi ... He wants to kill me."

Bianchi said Friday that Parvaiz, who has been in the hospital, was arrested "a few days ago." Stephen was arrested Thursday night in Massachusetts. Parvaiz was being held on $1 million bail, while Stephen was awaiting extradition and being held on $5 million bail.

Noorani was a native of Karachi, Pakistan, while Parvaiz was originally from Brooklyn, relatives have said. The couple were wed in an arranged marriage six years ago. They were in Boonton, which has many Pakistani-American residents, visiting relatives.

Parvaiz told family he was attending graduate school at Harvard, but the school has no record of him studying there.

New Jersey authorities gave the spelling of Stephen's first name as Antoinette, but it is spelled Antionette in public records.