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Trevon Johnson (COURTESY HACKENSACK P.D.)
Officers seized 21-year-old Trevon Johnson — who earlier fired at least nine or 10 shots at them with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson — as he emerged from the apartment shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday following at-times tense negotiations. Police retrieved the firearm, said Padilla, the department commander.
No one else was inside the apartment at 174 Polifly Road, said Padilla, who was relieved by the outcome.
“It was a collaborative effort — U.S. marshals, Bergen County Police, Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, State Police,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Most importantly, it was a very safe conclusion. No one was hurt — no residents or police officers.”
Things got a bit dicey. According to one law enforcement official who spoke with CLIFFVIEW PILOT tonight, Johnson was often combative and at one point told the officers: ‘You’re going to have to take me out.’
He also set a small fire to some papers, but the blaze went out before it could spread, the official told the website. Eventually, “he realized it was just a matter of time,” he said. “We were prepared to wait him out.”
Johnson was mistakenly released from a Maryland jail in mid-August after he pretended to be someone else. Authorities had been seeking him since.
Federal marshals tracked him to Hackensack and went to the Polifly Arms around 3:30 this afternoon accompanied by city police. That’s when shots rang out, said Michael Schroeder of the Marshal’s Service.
“The federal marshals and task force officers did not return fire; they withdrew from the residence; established a secured perimeter and proceeded to evacuate neighboring residences,” Schroeder said.
Authorities also called in his relatives to help with the negotiations.
This was the second peaceful conclusion to an incident involving a violent fugitive sought by U.S. Marshals in Bergen County in exactly three weeks. CLICK ON: Manhunt over, NYPD fugitive caught by U.S. marshals
Hackensack police established a perimeter around the three-story building, evacuating nearby residences, a block or so from the Stony Hill Inn. New Jersey State Police closed down the road just north of Route 80, as well as its exit from the interstate. Massive backups resulted. “There’s more cops here than Carter had liver pills,” Harold Schrader, owner of Polify Sunoco, just up the road from the Polifly Arms, said late this afternoon.
“First I heard there’s a hostage situation, then I hear there’s a man barricaded in there,” Schrader told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “I’m still pumpin’ gas, though.”
A representative with Enterprise-Rent-a-Car, whose regional headquarters is across the street, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that police quickly hustled employees who were already leaving for the day out of the building before they could see what was going on.
A perfunctory Google search found that jail officials mistakenly released Johnson on Aug. 13 after the family of a man named Tyrai Johnson posted bail at the Wicomico County Detention Center in Salisbury, Md. According to area news reports, WCDC Warden George Kalor called the mixup a “breakdown in procedure.”
However, the warden emphasized that the escapee “knew when he was leaving that he was not leaving as Trevon Johnson. He was leaving as Tyrai Johnson.”
Johnson had been incarcerated on drugs and probation violation charges. He will be held at the Bergen County Jail once Hackensack police are finished processing him. Federal authorities will then seek a warrant to have Johnson returned to Maryland pending the outcome of the New Jersey complaints.
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