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Gregory Calvo, 50, of Union City had just stolen hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from the Marshalls, Old Navy and TJ Maxx stores at Edgewater Commons when two officers found him in the Acme Supermarket on Saturday, Police Chief Donald Martin said.
“I’m not going to be arrested today,” Calvo announced as he “got into a fighting stance,” the chief said.
Calvo is all-too familiar to police.
Since 1989, he’s been convicted more than 20 times -- and served both state prison and county jail time – for offenses that include robbery, theft, burglary, drug dealing, domestic violence, aggravated assault and aggravated assault on a police officer in Bergen, Hudson, Passaic and Morris counties, records show.
Calvo was serving one of those sentences in the Hudson County Jail when authorities said he threatened to shoot a food service worker in the head.
He refused to go quietly for what became his 42nd arrest on Saturday.
As shoppers looked on, Calvo fought the officers, “elbowing and shoving them multiple times,” Martin said.
“Officers made several attempts to place Calvo in handcuffs," the chief said, "but he continued to violently resist arrest and assault the officers."
They eventually had no choice but to shock him with a Taser, he said.
Even then, Calvo “began to spit on the officers and kick [them] several times” after he’d been handcuffed, injuring them, Martin said.
Despite his notoriety, Calvo tried giving police a fake name at headquarters, the chief said
They identified him and found an active warrant for his arrest out of Morris County, Martin said.
Calvo said he wanted to be hospitalized, so Edgewater EMS took him to Englewood Hospital and Medical Center before he was transferred to the Bergen County Jail, where he remained Monday.
He's charged with three counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, throwing bodily fluids at a law enforcement officer, hindering apprehension, possession of stolen property and shoplifting.
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