BY TOM CLANCEY
OF NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
HARRINGTON PARK, N.J.——Local police officers had a weapons-drawn standoff with a local man who refused to follow orders and was eventually shocked with a taser and taken into custody, avoiding a potentially tragic outcome, Harrington Park Police Chief Albert Maalouf told Northern Valley Press.
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The incident happened on Sept. 23 at about 8:30 p.m. Northern Valley Press is not reporting the man’s name at the request of Chief Maalouf.
Area police initially responded to reports of a suicidal man with a firearm at a residence in the neighborhood of LaRoche Avenue and Carmen Road, then established a perimeter around the home of the man in question, Maalouf said.
In total, 10 police units responded: two from Harrington Park, three from Closter, two from Haworth, and one from Demarest police department, Maalouf said.
Initially officers were speaking with an intermediary, the man’s girlfriend, and later with his family members by phone, who implored the man to exit the home and comply with the officers.
The man eventually exited his home and was not brandishing a firearm, but he had his hands in his pockets, Maalouf said. With weapons drawn, in what Maalouf described as a “very tense” situation that lasted about five minutes, officers commanded the man to take his hands out of his pockets, drop to his knees, put his hands above his head, and other commands – all of which the man ignored, Maalouf said.
“If the man had acted in a threatening manor they could have conceivably used deadly force,” Maalouf said.
Officers began to converge on the man, continuing to shout commands – which the man continued to ignore, Maalouf said. As they approached the man, a Closter officer fired a taser that struck the man and delivered an electric shock, rendering him incapacitated, Maalouf said. The man was then taken into custody, and was eventually taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center, where he is undergoing treatment for psychological issues, Maalouf said.
The Harrington Park Police Department is not pursuing any criminal charges, Maalouf said.
Police secured the scene, and during a search of the man’s home found two firearms that were not loaded, and two antique rifles from the 18th century, all of which were seized, Maalouf said.