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Brawl With Barricaded Gunman Gives Leonia Police Sergeant Deep Cut

LEONIA, N.J. -- A Leonia man who barricaded himself in his apartment brawled with police -- sending a sergeant to the hospital with a deep leg cut and an officer there with a shoulder injury -- after they said he pointed a gun at another man on the street.

Kyle Stambaugh

Kyle Stambaugh

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT: Courtesy LEONIA PD

Kyle Stambaugh, 27, repeatedly refused demands to open the door of his Grand Avenue apartment Monday afternoon, Police Chief Thomas Rowe said.

Rowe had responded along with Sgt. Frank Rocco, Detective Sgt. Chris Garris and Officer Erik Goodell.

Moments earlier, he said, Stambaugh pulled up at Grand and Hillside avenues in a vehicle, pointed a gun at a 20-something acquaintance he's known for several years and threatened him "over some type of issue he had with the victim."

Stambaugh then retreated into his nearby garden apartment, leaving a terrified victim who immediately called police, the chief said.

Stambaugh wouldn't open the door once they arrived, Rowe said.

"Several times we requested that he surrender," the chief said, "but he continually refused."Eventually we had to kick the door down."

A violent struggle followed in which Rocco sustained a 6-inch cut through his calf muscle from a broken table. Goedell also injured his shoulder, the chief said.

Rowe put Rocco into his car and headed for Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.

"On the way, as luck would have it, I pulled up alongside a Fort Lee ambulance returning from a call," he said. "They took him and contained the bleeding."

Rocco needed three layers of stitches before he was released from the hospital Monday night, the chief said.

Police, meanwhile, took Stambaugh into custody and recovered the weapon -- a replica gun -- along with three others, Rowe said.

"They were incredibly realistic," he said.

A judge ordered Stambaugh held without bail in the Bergen County Jail pending a detention hearing on aggravated assault, resisting arrest and weapons charges, among other offenses.

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