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The alleged victim told police she was arguing with James E. Braxton, 51, when he hit her and then pointed a handgun at her before fleeing in his truck, said Capt. Darrin DeWitt, the officer in charge of the department.
Police located and arrested Braxton a short time later, but no gun was found, DeWitt said Wednesday. The woman sustained minor injuries and refused medical attention, he said.
Braxton was 18 when he was charged with murder in 1988 for shooting a man who intervened in a fight between him and his girlfriend on 12th Avenue and 22nd Street in Paterson, records show.
Braxton took a deal from prosecutors, pleading guilty to aggravated manslaughter in the killing of Jerome Short, 24, who'd been shot in the eye with a .38-caliber pistol. He was sentenced in 1989 to a minimum of 15 years, and a maximum of 30, in state prison.
When he was eventually paroled couldn't immediately be determined Wednesday. Records show a series of subsequent arrests beginning with drug busts in Passaic County in 2009 and 2012.
Braxton's most recent history includes drug charges in Bergen County in 2015 and in Passaic County in 2020, as well as unspecified criminal charges out of North Carolina in April of this year, records show.
Hackensack police charged Braxton on Tuesday with aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, simple assault and weapons offenses. He remained held Wednesday in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance at Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
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