SHARE

Tear Gas Ends SWAT Standoff With Cliffside Park Man, 46

CLIFFSIDE PARK, N.J. -- An hours-long standoff ended before dawn Friday when a SWAT team lobbed tear gas into a Cliffside Park house and took an emotionally disturbed man into custody.

Villa Amalfi, right.

Villa Amalfi, right.

Photo Credit: GoogleMaps

Police responded just after 8 p.m., borough spokesman Bill Maer said, after the 46-year-old resident began throwing coffee cups, brooms, mops and other objects from his window at patrons of the neighboring Villa Amalfi restaurant and catering hall.

The Marion Road resident "had some kind of problem with the [Palisade Avenue] catering hall," a law enforcement source told Daily Voice.

There had also been unconfirmed reports that the man had gone into the restaurant earlier in his underwear, carrying what witnesses thought was a weapon, the source said.

After barricading himself inside his home, the man began throwing things at police. So a Bergen County Regional SWAT team was called.

The team tried negotiating with him for several hours, at times using a public address system.

But the man didn't respond.

"You could see him walking past the window," an officer at the scene said. "But there was no response at all."

Just after 2 a.m., SWAT team members tossed in tear gas cannisters.

They later carried the man out on a stretcher.

He was taken to Bergen Regional Medical Center for evaluation.

Daily Voice is withholding the man's name.

to follow Daily Voice Cliffside Park-Edgewater and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE