What happened in Suffern?

RAMAPO AND SUFFERN POLICE DEFUSE POTENTIALLY DEADLY SITUATION

A large police event took place Friday afternoon around 5 p.m. Suffern Police Chief Clarke Osborne stated, “It was a pursuit that Ramapo PD got into in Sloatsburg. When it came into Suffern we assisted them in boxing the car in and removing the driver who was uncooperative at the corner of Lafayette & Orange Ave.’s.”

Ramapo PD explained that two Ramapo detectives were on patrol in Sloatsburg when they observed an erratic driver crossing the double yellow lines, into oncoming traffic. They attempted to stop the driver, but the driver failed to comply with all requests to stop.

Detectives noted the driver appeared to be “out of it” and requested the assistance of marked patrol units. Ramapo PD with the assistance of Suffern units were able to safely stop the vehicle, where they found the operator of the vehicle was disoriented and incoherent.

Numerous commands to put the vehicle in park and safely exit the vehicle were ignored leading the detective to break the passenger side window in an effort to put the vehicle in park and offer aid to the motorist.

The loud popping noise of the shattered windows led several witnesses to believe there was a shooting at the incident. Ramapo PD clarified that no shots were fired or weapons drawn during the incident. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries.  The motorist was removed to Good Samaritan hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

No arrests were made, but numerous tickets were issued to the driver.

Lieutenant Lancia of Ramapo PD stated, “The Ramapo police took all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of our residents as well as the motorist’s. A potentially life threatening situation was safely concluded due to the professionalism of the officers on scene.”

There also was a truck fire on an 18-wheeler in front of the Shamrock Hotel yesterday, however, it was not related to this incident.

The Rockland County Times posted a photo of the scene on its Facebook page around midnight soliciting information from any witnesses or police and noting there had been numerous rumors circulating as to what happened. Chief Osborne responded on the RCT Facebook page around 7:45 a.m. clarifying the matter.