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Detectives Yamil Pimienta and Mohammad Bashir spotted four suspect acting suspiciously around a vehicle stopped near the Power Gas station on 21st Avenue at Madison Street shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, Police Director Jerry Speziale said.
One of them was wearing a full face mask, he said.
As the detectives approached, the vehicle drove off with two occupants while two other men tried to hide behind a parked car, Speziale said.
Both then took off on foot down Madison Street toward 20th Avenue, each tossing away a handgun as they ran, the director said.
The detectives caught both men – identified as Leondre Caldwell, 22, and Jonathan Santiago-Velez, 32 -- and recovered the 9mm Ruger semi-automatic pistol and .380-caliber Taurus semi-automatic pistol, Speziale said.
Police charged Caldwell and Santiago-Velez with weapons offenses and resisting arrest and sent them to the Passaic County Jail to await first appearances in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson.
The guns were being sent to the New Jersey State Police lab to determine whether they’d been fired in crimes.
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