61°
Officers from Dumont initially responded to the First Street home following a 911 call from the 33-year-old First Street resident late Tuesday morning, Police Chief Brian Joyce said.
The caller asked for a SWAT team and the FBI, saying that he wanted to “show them something,” the chief said.
The man wouldn’t say exactly what that was, then refused to come out, Joyce said.
As a result, he said, the dead-ended street was temporarily closed off as Bergen County Regional SWAT Team members and police from Cresskill and New Milford joined their Dumont colleagues at the scene.
Dumont Police Dispatcher Jonathan Byrd kept the man on the line throughout the ordeal, eventually convincing him to come out after a standoff that lasted a little over 20 minutes, the chief said.
He was taken to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus for an evaluation and wasn’t facing any charges, Joyce said.
Byrd, who lives in neighboring New Milford, has been a full-time dispatcher in Dumont since June 2019. Before that, he served as a New Jersey Department of Corrections officer.
He previously dispatched for the police department from 2008 to 2017 and has also been a volunteer borough firefighter for more than 20 years.
Mayor Andrew LaBruno joined the chief in commending Byrd and thanking the SWAT team and neighboring police departments for a swift and peaceful resolution.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Middletown and receive free news updates.
