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Gotcha! Off-Duty Elmwood Park Firefighter Helps Nab Fugitive Following Passaic River Pursuit

A Paterson fugitive briefly eluded a police dragnet but was captured after he tried bumming a ride from what turned out to be an off-duty Elmwood Park firefighter, authorities said.

INSET: Stanley D. Edwards / BACKGROUND: The search in Elmwood Park

INSET: Stanley D. Edwards / BACKGROUND: The search in Elmwood Park

Photo Credit: BACKGROUND: Jo Fehl for DAILY VOICE / INSET: MUGSHOT

Paterson police armed with a warrant were pursuing Stanley Edwards, 30, when he bailed out of a vehicle that had just crashed into a parked car on Sterling Place shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday, Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno said.

He then ran down an embankment on River Drive and under the Broadway (Route 4) bridge over the Passaic River, responders said.

Fair Lawn police, Bergen County sheriff's officers and New Jersey State Police joined their colleagues from Paterson and Elmwood Park in establishing a perimeter.

K-9 units and a drone were summoned and two boats were launched in the Passaic River.

Edwards seemed gone, however.

It was roughly three hours later when Foligno's officers received a call from off-duty Elmwood Park Firefighter Davon Johnson. 

Edwards had approached him on Donor Avenue, a little over a half-mile from where he'd bailed out earlier, and asked for a ride, the chief said.

Borough and Fair Lawn police converged on the scene along with a sheriff's K-9 who found Edwards trying to hide behind a tree two doors down, he said.

Police turned him over to their Paterson colleagues.

Edwards apparently had been wanted on attempted murder charges in connection with the shooting of a 19-year-old Clifton woman on the border of Paterson and Prospect Park shortly after 3:30 a.m. Sunday, May 15.

SEE: Clifton Woman, 19, Shot In Chest

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