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Trevon Johnson
Officers seized Trevon Johnson — who earlier fired at least nine or 10 shots at them with a defaced .40-caliber Smith & Wesson — as he emerged from the apartment following at-times tense on Dec. 9, 2010. Police retrieved the firearm, city Police Capt. Tomas Padilla told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
No one else was inside the apartment at 174 Polifly Road, he said.
“It was a collaborative effort — U.S. marshals, Bergen County Police, Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, State Police,” Padilla told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time. “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 August 2010 after he pretended to be someone else.
Federal marshals tracked him to Hackensack and went to the Polifly Arms 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 at the time.
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, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
“First I heard there’s a hostage situation, then I hear there’s a man barricaded in there,” Schrader said. “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, now 22, continues to be held on a combined $3 million bail. He is charged with the attempted murder of four U.S. marshals, two state corrections officers and one officer each from Hackensack and the NYPD. Authorities have also charged him in connection with the defaced handgun, among other counts.
Federal authorities have said they will deal with him once the charges in Bergen County are resolved.
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