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Dereen Wofford, 43, who'd been accused of threatening two people with a gun, had a cell phone in his hands as he emerged from a room where he'd been living and then quickly advanced on officers who'd responded to the Travelodge Motel on Huyler Street, Chief Robert Chinchar said.
Exercising restraint, the officers got Wofford into custody without incident, the chief said.
They also seized an all-black .177 caliber BB gun from his waistband, Chinchar said.
Officers from South Hackensack, Little Ferry and Ridgefield Park initially responded to the 911 call of a man pointing a gun at a 26-year-old maintenance worker from Queens and a 42-year-old Englewood man, Chinchar said.
They quickly identified Wofford, who'd been staying at the motel since the COVID pandemic and had barricaded himself in his room, he said.
A Bergen County Regional SWAT team was summoned as police formed a perimeter around the motel.
They were awaiting the tactical unit's arrival when Wofford suddenly opened the door and began advancing on the officers, Chinchar said.
Wofford was quickly seized and later charged with aggravated assault, criminal restraint, obstruction and weapons offenses, including being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He has remained held in the Bergen County Jail since the Nov. 23 motel incident.
Wofford has a lengthy history of arrests and imprisonment stretching back more than two decades for crimes that include robbery, aggravated assault and escape, some of which involved guns, records show.
The career criminal was charged with attempted murder after shooting at several police officers in Paterson in late 2016 and then taking three bullets himself. A grand jury later ruled that the officer who shot Wofford in the left arm and both legs was justified.
Wofford also made headlines in January 2002 when he escaped from a private security van outside the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack and ran off with a shackle dangling from his leg.
Wofford had been captured in Virginia and was brought to New Jersey by private transport agents to face charges stemming from a prior incident involving a gun and cocaine in Hackensack.
Wofford remained on the lam for three months after his escape. Authorities again caught up to him again in -- of all places -- Virginia.
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