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“This needs to stop,” Leonia Officer Erik Goodell says after 22-year-old Sereymanta Kong rammed a New Milford police cruiser into the median, after which it was struck by another borough car, during Sunday’s chase.
CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo: Sammy Natal
Kong, of Wallingford, CT, then bailed out and was caught immediately, as the video provided to CLIFFVIEW PILOT by Leonia police shows.
The edited portion here begins on Prospect Road in Bergenfield as Goodell picks up the chase, which goes over lawns, through red lights and into oncoming traffic before a brief stretch on westbound Route 4.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
Goodell “knew that the suspect was out of control heading towards one of the busiest intersections in NJ at Routes 4 and 17,” Rowe told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this afternoon.
Kong, who had originally carjacked a mother in Englewood Cliffs before stealing the cruiser, “was completely depraved and based on the fact that he had smashed into numerous police vehicles, would have had no issues with smashing into civilian vehicles ahead of him to get away from pursuing officers,” Rowe said.
Sereymanta Kong (Courtesy: BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF)
With the road cleared ahead by a colleague, Goodell used the “precision immobilization technique” — commonly known as a PIT maneuver — to eliminate the danger, forcing the stolen cruiser sideways.
Kong remained held today on $1,275,000 bail in the custody of county sheriff’s officers at Bergen Regional Medical Center.
Charges against him include three counts each of assault on police, resisting arrest and eluding with serious injury, as well as one count of assault on a corrections officer and various other charges including disarming a police officer, carjacking and obstruction.
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