Paramus officers injured in mall store scuffle with theft suspect

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A Queens man had to be subdued after fighting with Paramus police officers who were arresting him on theft charges at a Garden State Plaza store, authorities said.

Jerry DeMarco

03/03/2014 5:35 p.m.

Officers Gregg Hooper and Ben Fox responded to a fraud-in-progress alert from the Sephora store Friday night, Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.

Ehrenberg said 26-year-old Charles T. Thompson was trying to return items he bought earlier in the day at a Sephora store in Willow Grove, PA.

Store employees recognized Thompson as having bought items with counterfeit money on Dec. 3 of last year, the chief said.

As the officers questioned him, Thompson lashed out, spraining Hooper’s hand and Fox’s arm and elbow, Ehrenberg said.

Both were later treated at the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, the chief said.

Thompson, meanwhile, was being held on $75,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and theft by deception.

MUGSHOT: Courtesy PARAMUS PD

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