Burglar Reaches For Cops' Guns During Struggle: Police

FAIR LAWN, NJ — A man charged with burglary wrestled with police officers, tried to grab their guns and spit on them early Tuesday morning, authorities.

Officer Tiller Uriate was on patrol when he was a suspicious man walking near Bellair Avenue and 15th Street at 3:27 a.m. Tuesday, Sgt. Sean Macys said in a news release.

Another police officer arrived as backup and they determined that the man, Mark Howard, of Newark, had stolen property and burglar tools on him, Macys said. Uriate tried to arrest Howard, but he pulled away and tried to flee.

A struggle ensued and Howard tried multiple times to grab the officers' gun belts; other officers arrived and helped place Howard under arrest, Macys said.

Police determined that Howard entered a vehicle on 17th Street and took a wallet, the sergeant said. Howard spit on officers at the scene and at police headquarters, he said.

Howard was remanded to the Bergen County Jail. He was charged with two counts of resisting arrest and aggravated assault, burglary, theft, possession of burglary tools, criminal mischief, possession of forged documents and throwing bodily fluids at a law enforcement officer, police said.

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