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Officers followed a blood trail along Van Winkle Avenue toward Passaic after responding to the 9 p.m. stabbing near Lake Avenue, Clifton Police Lt. Robert Anderson said. They were quickly joined by a K9 team and crime scene detectives from the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office, he said.
The officers began reviewing surveillance video along the trail and saw Roger Lester, 42, of Clifton bleeding from his hand as he walked by a short time earlier, the lieutenant said.
Authorities were familiar with Lester. His criminal history includes arrests for a shooting, assaults, multiple robberies, resisting arrest, drugs and weapons dating back to the late 1990s and mostly in Essex County, records show.
A little over three hours after the stabbing, officers found Lester in the front yard of a Lake Avenue home, a few hundred feet from the scene. He apparently had made his way back there from Passaic, Anderson said.
Lester was taken in custody to a local hospital for treatment before being sent to the Passaic County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson, the lieutenant said. He’s charged with aggravated assault and weapons offenses.
The victim, meanwhile, was reported in stable condition at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center.
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