On May 5 at 11:44 p.m., Officers Miranda, Anthony Oliveira, Dave Vazquez and Dean Gasser responded to a private home on a report of a dispute. Officers learned a girlfriend and boyfriend in their mid-20s had an argument after the boyfriend allegedly slapped the girlfriend’s buttocks. An argument then ensued over whether the parties’ dating status entitled them to spanking privileges.
Eventually the two allegedly began shoving each other. This ended when the girlfriend was pushed to the floor where her finger was cut and her wrist became injured. Officers arrested the male on a simple assault charge. He was later released with a summons.
On May 2 at 1:17 p.m., Officer Anthony Nunez was dispatched to a report of an armed robbery at Campbell Foundry on Harrison Avenue. An employee there reported two hours earlier he challenged a man to produce paperwork. He had been loading copper into a construction company pickup truck.
The man reportedly pulled a box cutter from his pocket and told the employee to keep walking and not say anything. Campbell Foundry management believed the suspect then left with $600-800 in copper.
When Campbell management contacted the construction company that owns the truck driven by the alleged thief, they learned the truck had been stolen earlier that morning from the company’s Newark office.
Dets. Jon Dowie and John Fabula coordinated with Newark police officers, who located the stolen truck abandoned on Muhammad Ali Avenue in Newark. The truck was then towed to Kearny PD headquarters for evidence processing.
Detectives then retraced the movements of the suspect and found he allegedly sold the copper at a scrap yard in Elizabeth. From his interactions at that scrap yard and from a Newark police photograph of him taken five days earlier, detectives identified the suspect as Donald R. Knight, 53, of Elizabeth.
Detectives charged Knight with robbery, receiving stolen property and weapons offenses.
Officer Jordan Miranda took custody of Knight May 9 after he was arrested by the Elizbeth Police Department for the Kearny arrest warrants.
Knight was later remanded to the Hudson County Jail, South Kearny.
On May 3 at 10:56 p.m., Officer Ryan Wilson assisted a woman who walked in to police headquarters reporting a domestic-violence restraining-order violation. The woman reported she had a restraining order against her ex-husband, a 61-year-old Kearny man, who The husband allegedly attempted to speak to her via the communication apps Facetime and Whatsapp and then came to her home and tapped on her car window while she was inside the car. Officer Wilson applied for a warrant charging the husband with contempt of court.On May 9, the husband turned himself in at KPD headquarters. Officer Wilson booked him and then transferred him to the county jail.
On May 7 at 10:13 p.m., Officers Lawrence Latka, Ryan Wilson, Kevin Matos and Sgt. Chris Levchak were dispatched to a private home for a dispute. The officers learned one party, Daniel Chipelo, 18, of Kearny, had left the scene. Chipelo had warrants out for his arrest for a previous incident.
Officer Matos found Chipelo walking on Chestnut Street near Quincy Avenue. Chipelo initially disregarded the officer’s command to stop, but Officer Matos quickly placed him under arrest.
Officer Matos booked Chipelo for a Hudson County Superior Court warrant (no bail) for a weapon offense and for a Kearny Municipal Court warrant (no bail) for burglary. The Kearny charge was related to an April 10 vehicle burglary on Washington Avenue in which a latent fingerprint recovered by Det. Frank West was matched to Chipelo.
He was booked for the outstanding charges and sent to the county jail.
On May 11 at 6:50 a.m., Officer Mat Lopez was flagged down by a concerned citizen reporting a driver asleep behind the wheel at Kearny Avenue and Belleville Turnpike. Officer Lopez drove down the street to investigate and found a driver asleep in a Volkswagen Jetta with other cars maneuvering around him.
When Officer Lopez approached, the driver awoke and just drove away. Officer Lopez pulled the Jetta over on Morgan Place. He and Spanish-speaking Officer Harold Azurdia interviewed the driver and detected signs of alcohol impairment.
Traffic Officer Sean Podolski administered field-sobriety tests to driver Aroldo Choc, 18, of Kearny. They arrested Choc when he failed to perform the tests satisfactorily. Following a breath test administered at the station by Officer Nicole Cain, Choc was charged with drunken driving and driving without a license. He was later released to a responsible person.
On May 12 at 11:44 p.m., Officers Bismark Karikari and Paul Duran assisted a disabled motorist at Hackensack Avenue and Routes 1&9. The car broke down in the intersection. While awaiting a tow, the officers learned driver Edwin R. Sanchez, 23, of Jersey City, was wanted by the Hudson County Superior Court on a kidnapping charge. The officers arrested Sanchez without incident. They later turned him over to the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office.
On May 12 at 1141 a.m., Officer Anthony Nunez was dispatched to Shoprite for a shoplifting complaint. Store management had stopped Antonio R. Henderson, 40, of Newark, based on their accusation Henderson stole $52.38 of hot food and seafood. Henderson disputed the allegation he did not pay, but he could not produce a receipt, a wallet or any money whatsoever.
Officer Nunez learned Henderson was also a fugitive from justice, wanted by authorities in Leon County, Florida, for a charge of defrauding a pawnbroker/dealing in stolen property. So, Officer Nunez arrested Henderson, who was charged with shoplifting and as a fugitive. He was remanded to the Hudson County Jail, pending extradition.
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Capt. Timothy Wagner | Kearny Police Department
Capt. Timothy Wagner is the Kearny Police Department's public-information officer and the commander of the department's Internal Affairs Unit. He contributes the KPD Blotter weekly and writes it completely.