PATERSON, N.J. \u2014 Two Allentown men were arrested in New Jersey following a foot pursuit, recovering an illegal handgun.<\/p>\n
The Paterson Police Department arrested two men after a motor vehicle stop in the area of Temple Street and Matlock Street in Paterson, according to police.<\/p>\n
On April 30, at approximately 10:17 p.m., officers assigned to patrol observed two men wearing dark clothing and ski masks walking in the roadway and allegedly obstructing traffic near Matlock Street and Temple Street, the news release details.<\/p>\n
As officers exited their vehicle to investigate further, a foot pursuit ensued, during which one man, later identified as Ricardo Vega, 20, of Allentown, allegedly discarded a handgun, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Officials say that Vega then attempted to enter a waiting vehicle, but was prevented by pursuing officers and taken into custody. The discarded handgun was also recovered by assisting officers.<\/p>\n
The driver of the vehicle, identified as Gilbert Rojas Rojas, 18, of Allentown, drove off, allegedly nearly striking an officer, according to the police. Additional officers located and stopped the vehicle a short distance away.<\/p>\n
Rojas Rojas was taken into custody without further incident, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police say that Vega is charged with second-degree possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and second-degree unlawful possession of a handgun. He is also charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of the administration of law.<\/p>\n
Rojas Rojas is charged with second-degree aggravated assault, as well as possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is exactly the type of proactive police work that removes illegal firearms from our streets,\u201d said Officer in Charge Murray. \u201cThese charges, including second-degree offenses, reflect the seriousness of this incident. Our officers recognized the threat, acted decisively, and took two individuals into custody before anyone was seriously injured. We will continue to stay focused on enforcement and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
This case is being prosecuted by the Passaic County Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PATERSON, N.J. \u2014 Two Allentown men were arrested in New Jersey following a foot pursuit, recovering an illegal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232,31,36339,835],"class_list":["post-185707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area","tag-crime","tag-newjersey","tag-western-newjersey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}