A license plate reader that led police to a stolen car yielded a much bigger catch as police were able to haul a fugitive off the streets who was wanted in several states, Det. Sgt. Michal Gontarczuk, the Kearny Police Department’s public-information officer said.
On Oct. 27, at around 4:22 p.m., Sgt. Ryan Stickno was working a construction detail near Schuyler Avenue and Dukes Street. The network of plate readers in Kearny alerted KPD dispatch of a Chrysler entering town, which was listed as stolen and wanted by the Delaware State Police for crime-scene processing.
Already in the area of this license plate read, Sgt. Stickno quickly located the vehicle and cut it off with his police vehicle. He repeatedly gave the driver orders to turn off the engine and exit the vehicle; however, the driver refused and acted suspiciously.
After numerous verbal orders were ignored, Sgt. Stickno opened the door to the vehicle, advised the man he was under arrest and began to physically remove him from the vehicle. This led to a fight — the driver lost naturally as Sgt. Stickno is a noted rugby player.
Several back-up units arrived and despite the man being handcuffed, he continued attempting to reach for his waist band, his legs had to be forced into a compliance hold and he continued resisting. Officers realized before Sgt. Stickno’s physical removal of the man from the vehicle, he was likely going to attempt to flee the motor vehicle stop, as he had placed the transmission into “reverse” when cut off by Sgt. Stickno, which ultimately caused his vehicle to roll backward into another.
A search of the stolen vehicle yielded a luxury bag containing credit and debit cards and a driver’s license belonging to a woman from whom the bag was presumably stolen. The suspect was identified as Christopher E. Rodriguez Gonzalez, 27, of Dillsburg, Pennsylvania.
While Rodriguez Gonzalez was taken to hospital, officers also learned he is a full-extradition wanted person in Florida (Polk County Sheriff’s Office — hit & run), Virginia (Northampton County Sheriff’s Office — $750K in thefts) and Pennsylvania (Carroll Township).
He was charged with being a fugitive from justice, aggravated assault on law enforcement, receiving a stolen motor vehicle, receiving stolen property, resisting arrest and obstruction the of the administration of law.
He will be transferred to the Hudson County Jail when processing is complete.
His brother, Jeff Michael Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 31, was also arrested and charged with hindering his brother’s apprehension in Carroll Township, Pennsylvania, according to reports.
Reports also say earlier this month, the suspect was involved in a high-speed chase with the Delaware State Police that caused two shelter-in-place orders to be instituted. That chase crossed state lines into Maryland, reports say, but because of safety concerns, trooper ultimately cut the pursuit off.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.