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A “Shotspotter” activation on Sunday brought officers to the intersection of Rosa Parks Boulevard and Keen Street, where they found people “on both sides of the intersection and walking into traffic, smoking, drinking and playing loud music,” Police Director Jerry Speziale said.
Their attention was immediately drawn to a man identified as Jacim Pitts, who, Speziale said, “appeared alarmed with the presence of the marked police unit.”
Pitts kept turning his head suspiciously to keep an eye on police as he walked away, the director said.
Officer Mohammad Bashir got close enough to spot what Speziale said might be a gun on Pitts’s right hip.
So Bashir rolled down his window, then opened his door – at which point Pitts fled with the weapon in his hand, he said.
Basir chased Pitts for several blocks – at one point tossing the gun over a fence – as fellow officers joined the pursuit, the director said.
Although they lost sight of him, a concerned citizen reported seeing Pitts scale a gate on Lyon Street, where the officers found him, he said.
Pitts struggled but was eventually subdued and taken into custody, Speziale said.
Meanwhile, their colleagues recovered the gun – a black Glock 23 loaded with four .40-caliber rounds in a magazine capable of holding 13, and a fifth in the chamber, he said.
It had been reported stolen out of Sumter County, SC, Speziale said.
Pitts was treated at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center for minor injuries before being taken to the Passaic County Jail.
Police charged him with obstruction, resisting arrest, receiving stolen property, possession of an illegal magazine and various other weapons counts.
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ALSO SEE: A teenage Paterson shooting victim was pronounced dead soon after being struck, responders said Thursday night.
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