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Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, Paramus Deputy Police Chief Robert Guidetti (PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter)
The accused gunman — 25-year-old Rafael Vasquez of Passaic — remained at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson in authorities’ custody. His bail is $2 million.
The 5-foot-5-inch, 140-pound Vasquez — also known as Rafael Vasquez-Pina and Gustavo Canga — is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, illegal weapons possession and illegal gun possession as a convicted felon.
His alleged accomplices — Melvin Eliscer Guzman, 18, of Garfield (above, left), Patrick Morel, 21, of Clifton (right) — were being held on $750,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail. Each is charged with robbery, aggravated assault and two illegal weapons charges.
Both were due in court in Hackensack this afternoon.
The officer remained in stable condition at Hackensack University Medical Center. He was shot during a $400 marijuana sting in the parking lot of the Marshals store in the Walmart parking lot off Passaic Street, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
The prosecutor said he was sitting in the driver’s seat of a county undercover vehicle with Guzman for what was supposed to be a pot buy when Pena walked up to the car window and pointed a gun at the officer.
“Give me everything you have,” Molinelli said he told the officer.
Pena then fired into the car twice, hitting the officer in the right hip and the lower left leg, the prosecutor said during a news conference in the HUMC lobby late yesterday afternoon.
Garfield Marshals/Walmart
Seven backup officers then converged on the car, shooting Pena in the arm and leg.
The nine-year Paramus PD veteran sustained two lower leg fractures, among other injuries. He was expected to recover fully, Dr. Joseph Feldman, the director of the HUMC trauma unit said during the news conference.
Molinelli said he believes the trio set up the officer, who they thought was a local pot dealer, when Guzman got into his car just before 1:45 p.m. outside the Marshals.
“It was an average street drug buy,” the prosecutor said. “Narcotics, even in this county, is a dangerous practice.
“The officers were prepared, and when things fell apart they came in and did their jobs,” the prosecutor said. “It was done perfectly, with both backup teams. No one ever goes in alone to make a drug buy.”
Following the shooting, Morel backed out of the lot in the car that brought Guzman there, then drove south on the Garden State Parkway, Molinelli said.
New Jersey State Police troopers stopped and arrested him near the Essex tolls.
MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
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