Cliffside Park man accidentally shoots himself after hearing fugitive reports

ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: Amid the concern generated over the highly-publicized escape of a fugitive in Bergen County, a Cliffside Park resident immediately began loading his gun — and it went off, the bullet grazing his hand, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

Jerry DeMarco

11/18/2010 8:35 p.m.

A Sig Sauer P-228 9mm

Cliffside Park Police Chief Donald Keane told the website that the 44-year-old West End Avenue resident “heard about the fugitive” and immediately began loading his legally Sig Sauer P-228 9mm — a model long preferred by some federal agents — when it discharged.

The unidentified resident sustained a “flesh wound” to his right hand, the chief said.

Fugitive Jose Rodriguez was handcuffed, in leg irons and without shoes when he bolted from New York City Police Department detectives who, along with U.S. marshals, had followed him from the Bronx to the Holiday on Route 4 in Fort Lee Wednesday afternoon. The news was reported throughout the area online and on television and radio, as police moved through neighborhoods in several eastern Bergen County towns surrounding Cliffside Park — including Ridgefield and Palisades Park.

A task force of U.S. marshals arrested Rodriguez shortly after 3 a.m. today at a hotel in Uncasville, Conn., near the Mohegan Sun casino. READ MORE….

Click here to follow Daily Voice Fort Lee and receive free news updates.