Detectives Mohammad Bashir and Mustafa Dombayci began chasing a Chevy Malibu that had sped through a stop sign at the corner of Carroll Street and Godwin Avenue shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.
The driver, Damond King, 30, of Paterson, then turned east onto Fair Street in the wrong direction and continued to Rosa Parks Boulevard, where the Malibu collided with another vehicle, Speziale said.
King bailed out of the car, tossed a gun, then tried to climb into a basement window of a home on Fair Street, the director said.
Dombayci and Detective Anthony Castronova caught him and recovered the 9mm Taurus semi-automatic handgun, he said.
At 1:50 a.m. Sunday, Detectives Luis Roca and Joseph Aboyoun stopped another vehicle in the area of Broadway and East 18th Street, Speziale said.
They recovered several small bags of pot, a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun and a high capacity magazine and arrested the driver, Taurean Thomas, 36, also of Paterson, he said.
Both men were processed on various charges -- including being convicted felons in possession of firearms -- and sent to the Passaic County Jail.
The guns were headed to the New Jersey State Police Ballistics Laboratory to determine whether they may have been used in crimes.
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