
Another reminder this morning of the dangers and the quick decisions NJ police sometimes have to make. This gun was being held by a man on Route 17 in Rochelle Park. It’s a BB gun, but the Bergen County prosecutor says the orange tip had been painted over. Is there any realistic way for the officers involved not to have believed that was a real gun? The man was shot and is at the hospital
DECEMBER 14, 2015, 7:46 AM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015, 6:43 AM
BY RICHARD COWEN AND JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Why a Maywood man had a BB gun whose orange tip had been painted black is one of the questions detectives were investigating Monday after the man crashed a car outside the Bergen County Board of Social Services office and was shot by two Rochelle Park police officers.
The shooting occurred at 3:27 a.m. after police were called to the building at 218 Route 17 north by security officers, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said via his Twitter account.
The driver remained inside the Toyota sedan after he crashed it in a driveway, the prosecutor said. The officers’ shots struck him in the lower body.
Molinelli identified the driver as Matthew S. Chaseman, 46, of 14 Marlboro Court in Maywood, and said his injuries did not appear to require surgery.
Chaseman was being treated Monday at Hackensack University Medical Center. The officers were not injured in the incident, which delayed operations at the Social Services office for several hours.
As of late Monday afternoon, authorities had not provided a detailed explanation of what had prompted the shots, which also shattered the rear window on the driver’s side of the car.
A Teaneck couple who identified themselves as Chaseman’s parents pulled into the driveway of their home shortly before 3:30 p.m.
The woman said she had called the hospital. “He’s going to be fine,” she said. “We’re not at all concerned.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/police-shooting-of-suspect-in-rochelle-park-full-of-mystery-1.1473465