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A SWAT team and colleagues from neighboring towns joined Carlstadt police at the Wonder Meats Inc. headquarters on Broad Street following the threats Tuesday evening, April 12.
They later arrested ex-con Mark Brownridge, 46, at Penn Station in Newark with help from New Jersey Transit police after tracking him overnight on his cellphone.
Brownridge, most recently of Hackensack, has previous arrests and convictions for offenses that include making terroristic threats and domestic violence, records show. Also known as Mark Sims, he has an eluding police charge on his record from 2003, as well.
Carlstadt police charged him with making terroristic threats, causing a false public alarm, violating a court order and disorderly conduct and sent him to the Bergen County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
Carlstadt police and a current employee at the meat wholesaler both received similar calls around 6 p.m., Deputy Chief Thomas Cox said.
The recently-sacked Brownridge told police that he was "on his way to his former employer’s location to kill everyone inside the building and that we better get there to stop him," Cox said.
Around that same time, police got a call from the plant of a similar threat, the deputy chief said.
The threats were "believed to be credible and with the intent to be carried through," Cox said.
There were five employees in the 24,000-square-foot building when Carlstadt police were met there by members of the Bergen County Regional SWAT Team and police from East Rutherford, Moonachie and Wood-Ridge, all of whom helped establish a perimeter.
The employees were escorted safely to Carlstadt police headquarters and interviewed, the deputy chief said.
Meanwhile, officers "remained at the scene until it was determined that the former employee was not near the area," Cox said.
The building was secured and remained monitored throughout the overnight.
The deputy chief thanked the partnering law enforcement agencies.
He also credited the staff at Wonder Meats -- a family-owned and operated business for more than 40 years -- for "taking proactive measures reporting this incident to authorities."
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