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Police began pursuing the Range Rover, which had been reported stolen out of Saddle River, on Chestnut Ridge Road around 5 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 30, Montvale Police Chief Doug McDowell said.
The vehicle crashed at Exit 157 onto Route 46 off the southbound Parkway 15 or so minutes later.
The driver, Raidis A. Santos Tejada, 19, of Newark was trapped in the car and taken at gunpoint, Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno said.
The passenger, Rahim J. Irish, 22, of Irvington, bolted on foot, he said.
Elmwood Park Officer Nicholas Squillaci was patrolling the area, searching for Irish, when he spotted him, Foligno said.
Squillaci chased Irish through backyards and over fences before tackling him on a grassy area on River Drive, he said.
Santos Tejada was charged with endangerment by knowingly creating the risk of death, as well as resisting arrest and receiving stolen property. He was also wanted on a warrant out of Newark, records show.
Irish was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction and receiving stolen property. He was also wanted on a warrant out of Readington Township, records show.
Both men were sent to the Bergen County Jail, after which ICE swiftly issued a detainer on Irish, who records show was born in the British Virgin Islands.
The detainer will hold Irish there – without exceptions -- until he can be brought before a federal judge at an immigration status hearing in Newark.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seek such detainers whenever immigrants suspected of living illegally in the United States are jailed.
If a judge were to order Irish’s release for some reason -- say, New Jersey's bail reform law -- agents from ICE would still have another 48 hours to come and get him from the jail.
Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton has honored detainer requests for defendants who've been charged with or convicted of felonies but not for those seized solely for possible deportation.
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