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The same combatant later lowered his head while handcuffed at police headquarters and battered down a door, Police Director Michael Mordaga told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
“I’m an animal! I’m an animal!” yelled 24-year-old Walter Alston (above) of Hackensack as he swung the baton at Sgt. Ben Marino on Anderson Street around 10 o’clock last night, Mordaga said.
“His vest absorbed some of the blows to the body,” the director told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Fellow Officer Matthew Jacobsen was punched in the face before backups arrived, Mordaga said.
The officers subdued the 6-foot-5-inch, 350-pound Alston but had trouble getting him handcuffed and into a police cruiser after he began fighting again, he said.
As a result, Sgt. Sara Malvasia hurt her back and had to be taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, while Officer Anthony Duardo injured his left hand and wrist, Mordaga said.
At headquarters, he said, “Alston put his head down and ran head-first into a door, battering it down.”
Alston — whose rap sheet the past five years includes arrests for aggravated assault, assault, disorderly conduct and theft — was being held on $50,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, disarming a police officer and criminal mischief.
Disorderly conduct charges were filed against his companions: 6-foot-3-inch, 380-pound Julius Mitchell, 33, and 6-foot, 280-oound Charles Singletary, 34, also of Hackensack.
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