Cheryl Makin | Bridgewater Courier News

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SOUTH BRUNSWICK – A township police officer was injured responding to an alleged home burglary attempt over the weekend.

Police Chief Raymond Hayducka expressed his displeasure with the four teenagers who allegedly violated Gov. Phil Murphy’s emergency orders to commit the alleged crime.

"These are challenging times and every call presents a heightened danger for officers,” Hayducka said in a statement. “Most people are following the rules, but these four seem willing to do whatever they wanted, and it resulted in an officer being injured. I will not have my officers’ safety put at risk by people who recklessly decided to break the governor’s order and commit crimes."

~Courtesy of South Brunswick Police Department

Officers responded shortly after 3:30 a.m. Sunday to 14 Point of Woods Drive after a caller reported they saw suspects enter the home through a first-floor window, police said. Arriving officers observed the suspects running inside the home, they said.

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Officers began to search the home and quickly took three suspects into custody, while a fourth suspect was located later, police said.

Officer Kent English was searching the second-floor interior of the house when he fell through the floor and landed 10 feet below on the first floor, police said. English suffered injuries to his abdomen and was transported by Kendall Park First Aid Squad to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, they said.

English was released from the hospital and is recovering at home, police said.

The four suspects were charged with burglary and violating Murphy’s emergency order. One suspect is an adult – Firaz Osman, 18, of Kendall Park. The other three are juveniles – two 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old, police said.

"I want to make this clear, do not violate the governor’s executive order, we will have zero tolerance," Hayducka said. "None of what happened [Sunday] morning needed to take place if people were responsible. We are working too hard to stop this virus to have people recklessly create more problems."

Email: cmakin@gannettnj.com