MORRISTOWN
‑ A former Paterson police officer was charged Friday with unlawful possession
of a weapon for allegedly firing a gun into the air and pointing it at another
person during a dispute on Abbett Avenue, according to the Morris County
Prosecutor's Office.
Dustin
Bradley, 27, of Rockaway was charged with second-degree unlawful possession of
a weapon, second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and third-degree
receiving stolen property stemming from an alleged incident on May 28. No one
was injured in the incident, the prosecutor's office said.
Bradley
had been hired as a Paterson police officer in 2007 and was laid off in April
2011. He was arrested during a motor vehicle stop in Rockaway Friday following
an investigation conducted by the prosecutor's office, the Morristown Police Department, the Morris
County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and Morris County Sheriff’s
Department Criminal Investigations Unit and K9.
According
to police, an undercover police officer stationed at the intersection of Abbett
Avenue and the access road to the shopping center at 30 Lafayette Ave.,
witnessed a group of four men exit one vehicle and four to five men exit a
second vehicle on at about 4 a.m. on Monday, May 28.
Two men
from the second vehicle were also carrying baseball bats, police said.
The
officer then witnessed a physical altercation between the men and one man
striking another several times in the face with a bat that knocked him to the
ground.
As the
officer approached the group in his car but without turning on his lights, a
white man approached the group and a black man struck him in the head with a
bat.
The white
man then allegedly pulled a silver handgun from his waistband and fired a
single shot into the air, according to the police officer who witnessed the
altercation.
The officer
then witnessed the man point the pistol at the man who had hit him over the
head with the baseball bat, the affidavit said.
The
patrolman activated his emergency lights, which drew the attention of the
fighting group and caused them to run.
The
officer pursued the man carrying the gun with his patrol car west on Abbett
Avenue toward Ridgedale Avenue before engaging in a foot pursuit after the man
entered the Dean Tire Auto Shop parking lot at 60
Abbett Ave.
The man
threw the gun to the ground near the rear western portion of the auto shop
property and then jumped over the fence and continued into a wooded area behind
the lot.
The
officer halted the pursuit and searched and found the gun, the affidavit said.
Authorities
were informed that one of the men injured in the altercation had gone to St.
Claire's Hospital in Denville for treatment.
The man
at the hospital later led authorities to others involved in the incident and
told detectives that the situation began earlier that night at Sona Thirteen Bar on South Street.
According
to the witnesses, the white man and several of his friends got into a verbal
altercation after the bar closed, the affidavit said.
One of
the witnesses claimed to receive harassing text messages and phone calls from
the white man and the two decided to meet on Abbett Avenue to settle the issue.
Police
arrested Bradley after he left his Rockaway home Friday.
Bradley
allegedly admitted to police he was at Sona Thirteen the night of the incident
and admitted he was involved in a verbal dispute there, but he denied he was
ever at the Abbett Avenue incident.
Bradley
was transported to the Morris County Correctional Facility where he is being
held on $50,000 bail.