Hoboken Leprecon Day Results in 15 Arrests, 2 Officers Injured

Hoboken, NJ - Sunday, March 6th, 2016

The 2016 Hoboken Leprecon or Hoboken St. Patrick’s Day Celebration, which is an event sponsored by a private promoter and many local bars, and not the City of Hoboken, resulted in another day of arrests and summonses for disorderly behavior and culminated with two Hoboken Police Officers being injured and hospitalized.

This year, the Hoboken Police Department and outside agencies consisting of the Union City Police Department, North Bergen Police Department, Westfield Police Department, New Jersey Transit Police, Port Authority Police and the Hudson County Rapid Deployment Force responded to 432 calls for service between 8am Saturday and 4am Sunday, 27 less than the 459 responded to over the same time period last year.

There were 54 City Ordinance summonses issued mostly for drinking in public, with some being issued for urinating in public, disorderly house parties, and disorderly conduct. This is down from the 93 issued last year. There were 16 motor vehicle moving violations summonses issued as traffic was not a major problem on the day with many using public transportation.

A total of 35 people were transported to hospitals, down from 39 last year, and like last year, there were no reports of sexual assaults.

Arrest numbers went up from 11 last year to 15 this year. The last arrest occurred today when one, Christopher Smallwood, 24 years old, of Warminister, Pennsylvania, turned himself in to police, and is now being charged with multiple counts of Aggravated Assault. Smallwood was allegedly involved in a fight at McDonald’s at 2:30am. While fleeing the scene of the fight, Sgt. Steve Aguiar and Detective Christine Collins confronted Smallwood on Bloomfield Street. Smallwood proceeded to run over the officers and fight away from the officers to evade apprehension. Smallwood struck the officers with such force that Det. Collins suffered three broken ribs and Sgt. Aguiar received a dislocated shoulder. Smallwood was ultimately able to use his skills as a former college football running back at Delaware Valley, and evaded arrest until he turned himself in shortly before noon today. Aguiar and Collins were both taken to Hoboken University Medical Center and were released earlier today and are both now out of work on injured status.

“I am disturbed by the repeated behavior that is occurring on these types of themed events, and have several measures that I am exploring with my command staff that I feel needs to be taken”, said Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante. Ferrante added “I will not tolerate having any of our officers injured, for the purposes of a few to make a financial profit at the expense of our residents, and for the purposes of promoting deviant behavior attached to various holidays, which results in citizens and officers being hospitalized!”

Ferrante added, “I am proud of the efforts put forth by our officers who did everything possible to keep this city as safe as possible throughout the day and night, and thank all of the assisting agencies who helped us put 200 officers on the streets.

###

Get the latest Hoboken news:

Email & text updates | Facebook | Twitter | RSS