Teaneck Police: One in Custody after Cedar Lane Assault by Teaneck Juvenile

Chief of Police Andrew R. McGurr announces that a juvenile actor has been taken into custody and charged on a juvenile delinquency complaint following an aggravated assault that occurred last night.

On Tuesday, October 31, 2023, at approximately 8:56 PM, Officers responded to the Seasons Express store, located at 465 Cedar Lane, following several 911 calls reporting an incident. Upon their arrival, they discovered a victim, determined to be a 14-year-old boy from Teaneck, who had suffered a deep laceration to his face and a stab wound to his buttocks. The juvenile victim was transported by the Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps to Hackensack University Medical Center for emergency treatment of non-life threatening injuries sustained during the attack.

As per initial Police Reports, the incident occured on the sidewalk of Garrison Avenue, between Cedar Lane and Beverly Road.

Witnesses provided a description of the suspect, who was apprehended a short time later by Bogota police.  He was reported to be a male who was dressed in dark clothing and wearing a Halloween clown mask.

That individual, identified as a 16-year-old boy from Teaneck, was determined to be the actor and was taken into protective custody. A search of the juvenile actor revealed he was in possession of a utility knife, which was partially covered in blood.

Teaneck Police indicated that “[b]ased upon a preliminary investigation, it does not appear the assault was precipitated by any type of confrontation or problem between the involved persons.”

As a result of the investigation, the juvenile actor was charged on a Juvenile Delinquency complaint with the following offenses;

  • Aggravated Assault 2nd Degree Crime
  • Aggravated Assault with a deadly weapon 3rd Degree Crime
  • Possession of a Weapon for Unlawful Purpose 3nd Degree Crime

Chief McGurr states that the charges are merely accusations and all defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

Anyone with information about this or other investigations is urged to contact the Teaneck Police Department at 201-837-2600, or Crime Stoppers. Tips can be made anonymously on the group’s website at www.bergencrimestoppers.org or by calling 844-466-6789, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

2023-10-31-Aggravated Assault-Weapon-Juvenile Actor

The code was meant to be a shield, but someone is using it as a sword

In my previous post (Sidewalks – the deal you didn’t know you made),  I discussed some of the origins of our sidewalk codes and explained a little bit about the deal residents made to repair them if they became a hazard.

In this post, I want to focus a little bit on how our municipal code operates and the norms that existed when certain provisions were created.

The importance of Norms

While it’s clear that residents who wanted sidewalks, agreed to fix them if they fell into disrepair, problems became apparent from the start.  New residents would buy homes and discover they had to fix sidewalk slabs, coming to council for relief.

Here is how Councilman Haggerty described the problem in January of 1948: Continue reading “The code was meant to be a shield, but someone is using it as a sword”

Sidewalks – the deal you didn’t know you made

We made a deal.

We may not know it, but we did.  The deal was simple — the town would put in sidewalks, assessing homeowners for the cost, and if they had problems, it was on the homeowner to repair them.

That was the deal. 

In fact, the Council went to great pains to see if people actually wanted sidewalks.  They sought and received input from residents, on a block-by-block basis, to see if they wanted sidewalks installed.  You don’t remember anyone asking?  It might have been before your time.

Here’s an example from the Township minutes in the 1950’s:

Beverly Road:

Continue reading “Sidewalks – the deal you didn’t know you made”