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A mall security guard had flagged down Officer William Hall following shoplifting from the Pac Sun clothing store shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15, Detective Capt. Dan Daly said.
The officer approached Khaalil Tariq Branch, 29, of Philadelphia, who “feigned that he was looking for identification and suddenly ran through the parking lot,” the captain said.
Hall chased Branch to Willowbrook Boulevard and onto Riverside Drive before he and Officer Matthew Bernardo began establishing a perimeter with help from officers from Fairfield, Little Falls, and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.
Police then got a call from a resident who reported seeing a stranger walking through backyards, Daly said.
Officers converged on the neighborhood and spoke with the arriving Uber driver, the captain said.
Moments later, they found Branch hiding in tall brush behind a fence on Riverside Drive, he said.
Branch was charged with receiving stolen property, resisting arrest, obstruction, and possession of an anti-shoplifting countermeasure device.
He eventually ended up at the Bergen County Jail on Monday, records show, only to be released by a judge that same day under New Jersey’s bail reform.
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