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Lyndhurst Police Sgt. Paul Haggerty and Officer Steven Batista responded to a 911 call just after 12:30 a.m. Monday at the Quality Inn on Polito Avenue, where a 42-year-old Belleville woman told them that Anthony Pate had attacked her, Detective Sgt. Vincent Auteri said.
The woman, who had neck bruises, warned them that he was drunk, Auteri said.
Pate, 43, of Belleville already had a lengthy history of violence, including attacking two men with a hammer in a brawl at a South Hackensack strip club and recorded arrests for aggravated assault on police, kidnapping and armed robbery, among other offenses.
Pate “acted belligerently,” ignoring the officers’ orders to remove his hands form his pockets and refusing to comply in any way with their instructions, when they found him on the first floor moments later, he said.
Pate then dropped his pants, advanced on the officers and insisted that they would have to shoot him, Auteri said.
“Rather than risk injury to him, themselves or anyone else,” they zapped him with a Taser, he said.
Doctors at Hackensack University Medical Center cleared Pate of any injury following an exam, after which he was admitted to New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus for a psychological evaluation, Auteri said.
Pate was then taken to the Bergen County Jail, where he remained Tuesday, charged with assault and obstruction.
During an incident that made headlines in January 2014, Pate struck a man in the head with a hammer outside the Twins Plus Lounge in South Hackensack. Two other men were deliberately hit by a car and another was stabbed during the brawl, authorities said at the time.
SEE: New Charges Confirmed, More Announced In Brawl Outside South Hackensack Strip Club
Pate also was known for a lawsuit in which he and another man were accused of harassing a Long Island couple rushing a dying dog to the vet in Manhattan.
SUIT: Ex-Con In South Hackensack Strip Club Brawl Kept Dying Dog From Vet
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