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HACKENSACK, NJ—A local man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly called at least 19 police department and said officers in those towns would be murdered.
Angel Sariol, 45, a custodian, was arrested in Hackensack on Thursday, March 22 and charged with one count of false public alarm, one count of terroristic threats during a state of emergency, and one count of terroristic threats.
Nobody was reported injured. The investigation was conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief Robert Anzilotti the Rochelle Park Police Department under the direction of Chief Robert Flannelly.
Authorities said that from Monday, March 19 through Wednesday, March 21, members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit received information from 19 municipal police departments in Bergen County about a substantially similar series of phone calls that they received during that three-day period from an anonymous caller.
The departments involved in the investigation and that provided leads are those of Wood-Ridge, Hasbrouck Heights, Paramus, Park Ridge, Wyckoff, Elmwood, Maywood, Rochelle Park, Waldwick, Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River, Harrington Park, Woodcliff Lake, Hackensack, Oradell, Demarest, Saddle Brook, River Edge, and Weehawken.
During many of these calls, the unknown caller said that police officers from those towns would be murdered.
The ensuing investigation revealed that Sariol “used technology to disguise his calling line identity and placed the phone calls.”
Sariol was remanded to the Bergen County Jail pending a hearing in Central Judicial Processing Court on March 23.
In a press release, Acting Prosecutor Calo said that the charges are merely accusations and that Sariol is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.