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A construction worker by trade, Christopher C. Gomez, 38, had been living in shelters in New York City before recently moving in with his mother at the Oxford Terrace Apartments, authorities said.
He'd become violent, however, so she fled and called police at 7:43 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21, River Edge Police Chief Michael Walker said.
Responding officers “tried to contend with him,” but Gomez retreated into the kitchen of the garden apartment and began picking up knives to stave them off with, the chief said.
Then he grabbed a box cutter, Walker said.
The officers wisely backed out and called a “rolling” Bergen County Regional SWAT Team unit, he said. The larger unit arrived soon after and the standoff continued for several hours, the chief said.
Finally, the team began lobbing gas canisters through the windows.
They got the heavily barricaded door open and seized Gomez without further incident around 1 p.m., Walker said.
RIver Edge police charged Gomez with four counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, as well as resisting arrest, simple assault, criminal mischief and weapons possession.
He was brought to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, where he remained on Friday.
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