This was no typical Saturday night brawl. When two drinking buddies got into a fight and one got stabbed, it resulted in a four-hour police operation involving multiple law enforcement agencies and sophisticated rescue equipment lowered precariously over the Palisade cliffs.
The anonymous 911 call came in about 3:30 on Sunday morning, Feb. 22. Police responding to the report of a fight at 79th and Kennedy Boulevard East initially found nothing, then located a witness who indicated the fight occurred not on the street, but underneath Boulevard East.
Last year the county replaced a bridge carrying the roadway over the Palisades at 76th Street. Chain-link fences separate the sidewalk from the tangled underbrush that angles steeply over the cliff. Posted signs indicate, “No trespassing, extremely dangerous, falling could be fatal.”
The parties involved in the fight, it turned out, were homeless individuals living in a makeshift encampment under a bridge.
Climbing over the wall, police officers proceeded about 20 yards down the cliff, through the snow and ice. “They began to shout out in English and Spanish to see if any one was injured,” said North Bergen Police Chief Robert Dowd. “One victim came out, bleeding.”
Unable to proceed any further through the treacherous terrain, the police officers notified North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue, who responded and assisted the victim back up to the street.
“There was a laceration to the left side of his head with significant bleeding,” said Dowd. “And two puncture wounds to right side of his leg, with a significant amount of blood loss.” The victim was rushed to Palisades Medical Center where his injuries were deemed non-life threatening.
Back at the cliff, “The [alleged suspect] was still under the bridge, refusing to come out,” said Dowd.
“In these types of situations, if it was just an injured victim, it would be appropriate for the fire department to handle it,” he continued. “But this was more than an innocent victim, it was an [alleged] armed felon. With the man possibly armed it was considered too dangerous to send members of the fire department after him. It was more appropriate to get a law enforcement agency to take him into custody.”
“One of the firemen was saying it was mess down there, there was a lot of blood everywhere.” – Bonnie Wise.
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“Port Authority has an Emergency Services Unit that is highly trained in high angle rescue and all type of precarious situations,” said Dowd. It was the Port Authority ESU that went over the cliff to retrieve the suspect.
“They used a fireman basket,” said Dowd. “It’s like a metal gurney. They used these large straps and these rescue baskets. They tie the guy in and then they use straps to hoist him up.”
Hauled up in restraints
Bonnie Wise lives alongside Boulevard East where the incident took place. “I woke up about four in the morning and there were police officers across the street,” she said. “They’d been there maybe two, three times in the last six months going over the wall. We know there are people who jump over the wall and basically live on the cliffs. They’ve been doing that since we’ve been living here, about three years.”
In addition to the fences and signs, police periodically patrol the cliffs looking for trespassers. But this was different, said Wise. This time there were spotlights. And fire trucks. And rescue vehicles with hoisting equipment.
“One of the firemen was saying it was mess down there, there was a lot of blood everywhere,” said Wise.
After a few hours the operation drew to a close as the Port Authority hauled what Wise assumed was an injured man up from below. “They pulled this man over the side of the cliff on a gurney and then we noticed he just stood up from the gurney and his hands were tied behind his back,” he said.
“They were able to get under the bridge, cleared the encampment, and inside a homemade tent they located the [alleged suspect],” confirmed Dowd. “Port Authority took him into custody without incident.”
Beneath the bridge
“It’s very dangerous and you just kind of hold your breath when you see people go over that wall,” said Wise. “There’s hardly any land, really. They’re sneaky about it and do it at night. They come up and do it quickly.”
Although a new building is under construction down below at the foot of the Palisades, the underside of the bridge is only really accessible from above, via Boulevard East. And while Boulevard East is technically a county road, “Anything within the township we consider North Bergen jurisdiction,” said Dowd.
As for the area beneath the bridge, “We routinely go down there and try to clear it,” he said. “If we do locate any homeless individuals we refer them to shelters or social services.”
On the morning of the incident there were apparently three people living beneath the bridge: the victim, the man taken into custody, and the witness, whom police believe is the one who called 911.
“According to the [alleged suspect] and victim, they had been drinking tequila together when an argument broke out and turned physical, resulting in the smashing of a bottle over the victim’s head and a stabbing with a knife,” said Dowd. “The [alleged suspect] also had a laceration to his head from the victim trying to fend him off and protect himself.”
The alleged assailant, Luis Armando, a Guatemalan national, was taken to Meadowlands Hospital, where he received stitches. He was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, and aggravated assault. He also allegedly had seven active warrants in North Bergen.
The North Bergen officers involved in the operation were Sgt. Jorge Raposo and Police Officer Frank Ponce. “They coordinated the rescue and the apprehension,” said Dowd.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.