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What provoked the incident wasn’t disclosed by Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Paterson Police Department Officer-In-Charge Isa Abbassi in a release they issued announcing the arrest of Doretero Cruz, 53.
They did say that Cruz got into his car and tried to run down both men -- one 30, the other 27 – after knocking one of them out with a punch in Paterson’s Sandy Hill neighborhood shortly after 1:30 a.m. June 19.
Cruz then hit one of the men with a wooden milk crate before they and others started throwing bottles at him, witnesses alleged.
In response, he got into his vehicle and drove at one of the men, pinning him against a chain-link fence off the corner of Market and East 18th Street, responders said.
Cruz drove off but then doubled back, coming toward his opponents the wrong way up Market Street, they said.
The group began chucking bottles at his car, prompting Cruz to steer onto the sidewalk and hit the second victim, police at the scene said.
He also took out a stop sign and several garbage cans before the vehicle came to rest on the front stoop of an apartment building, they said.
Cruz and the victims were brought to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center for treatment of injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, they said.
Cruz was arrested by city police after being released last Wednesday, June 21.
He remained held Monday in the Bergen County Jail, charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and offenses involving a weapon – namely: the vehicle, they said.
A judge initially ordered him held, but Cruz has a bail hearing scheduled in Paterson on Tuesday, June 27.
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