There had been an “ongoing issue between them that involved a previous fight in another location,” Wayne Police Detective Capt. Dan Daly said on March 6.
The boy was found at the entrance to the food court with a stab wound in his thigh around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4, the captain said.
The boy who stabbed him fled with others in his group toward the Cinemark movie theater, Daly said.
As officers from Wayne, Fairfield and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office converged on the area, a resident called township police to report a group of juveniles hiding in a backyard on Riverside Drive.
The quintet was quickly taken into custody, the captain said.
The 16-year-old was issued a delinquency complaint charging him with aggravated assault and weapon offenses, Daly said. He was released to his parents pending the outcome of a closed-door hearing in the Family Part of Superior Court in Paterson, the captain said.
The injured boy was taken to a local hospital where he was treated before being released, he said.
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