Officers Responding To Hackensack Street Brawl Find Birthday Boy Carrying Loaded Gun: PD

Two Hackensack police officers responding to a report of an overnight fight found a city man marking his 24th birthday Tuesday with a loaded handgun stashed under the driver’s seat of his vehicle, authorities said.

Noah Brown / Ruger 5.7 (not the actual gun seized)
Photo Credit: *HACKENSACK PD (inset) / Thornfield Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons*

Jerry DeMarco

06/20/2023 11:13 a.m.

Participants in the fight on Central Avenue off Prospect scattered as police approached shortly after 1 a.m. June 20, said Capt. Michael Antista, the officer in charge of the department.

While some of them were being rounded up, Officers Michael Reo and Reuven Lyak turned their attention to an idling vehicle occupied by Noah Brown, the captain said.

The officers determined that Brown was involved in the fight, then found the hidden, loaded Ruger 5.7 handgun, he said.

Brown was charged with weapons possession and sent to the Bergen County Jail to await a first appearance at Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, Antista said.

"This was a great job by our officers, who may have prevented a more violent crime from occurring," Hackensack Police Director Ray Guidetti said. "Arresting offenders that are in illegal possession of handguns can often disrupt the cycle of violence before it takes root in communities."

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