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Paterson and New Jersey State police worked together to resolve the confrontation with no injuries at NJ TRANSIT's Market Street garage, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said on Friday, April 14
No charges were filed, either, because the incident was considered a mental-health crisis that “involved police action as part of law enforcement’s community caretaking function,” the attorney general said.
It began when city police got a 911 call shortly before 5 p.m. last Saturday, April 8 from a man claiming that he was homeless and suicidal, Platkin said.
“When officers arrived at the location near the Paterson Great Falls, they observed the man with a large knife who appeared prepared to harm himself,” he said.
City police officers talked with the man while receiving “assistance and expertise” from the NJSP Emergency Response Team, the attorney general said.
Talks appeared possibly headed to continue on Easter Sunday, but the man finally agree to surrender and hand over the knife just before 11:30 p.m., Platkin said.
Authorities immediately connected with a crisis team at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center “to ensure a transition to mental health services” once the man had been brought there, he said.
State Police Major Frederick Fife, who’s the interim officer in charge of the city department, said the “professionalism, patience and dedication” of both squads “allowed us to resolve the matter and ensure that the proper steps were taken to keep the community safe.”
Platkin took control of the day-to-day operations of the Paterson Police Department last month following a series of incidents capped by the fatal March 3 police shooting of Najee Seabrooks, a 31-year-old crisis intervention worker, that ended a nearly five-hour standoff.
SEE: 'No Safety Without Trust': AG Takes Over Paterson PD, Pledges Changes In Mental Crisis Policing
Seabrooks, a respected and admired non-violence activist, was in the middle of what family members said was apparently a drug-induced mental health crisis that morning.
SEE: Video Shows Paterson Non-Violence Activist Bursting From Bathroom With Knife When He's Shot
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