Hoboken’s Rough Weekend—Man Shot Saturday Morning, Portion of City Locked Down Saturday Night in Separate Incidents

Posted on April 13, 2015 in hNOW, News

When people say “wild weekend” and “Hoboken” in the same sentence, it usually involves a significant bar tab. Unfortunately, this past weekend was a lot more serious.

First off, a 23-year old Las Vegas man thought it would be a good idea to go swimming off Pier C at 1:30 a.m. Saturday. Gabriel Osorio was found clinging to beams beneath the pier when New York Police Department Harbor Patrol, the Hoboken Fire Department and medical personnel arrived. He appeared to be intoxicated, and was cited for “No Swimming” violation.

Then at about 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, a 35-year old man was shot in the thigh during a robbery in the vicinity of 8th & Willow.

According to the report on NJ.com, “The alleged robber was described as a black male in his 40s between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-11 in height with a slim build, and wearing a dark hoodie.”

The victim was treated at Jersey City Medical Center and later released.

Later on Saturday night, multiple police agencies responded to a bomb threat at the Neumann Leathers building. Police took the threat very seriously, as the building was searched multiple times until they were able to determine that there was no danger. Due to the investigation, Observer Highway was closed to traffic and reopened early Sunday morning—but the resulting police response severely impacted traffic to and from Hoboken on Saturday. Furthermore, wild speculation on social media only exacerbated the concerns, with many calling for better communication from first responders should such an event occur in the future.

“There were many requests for information to be presented to the public through media and social media during the event,” said Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante. “Based on the dynamics and danger at hand during the event, and the level of the threats and the belief that the individual was counteracting strategies and information that was stated over the police radio, I decided to have all communications be done at the scene, person to person, and to not put any information out which could have harmed our residents and our law enforcement officers that were undertaking a dangerous task during a very tense scene.”

The Hoboken Police Department is still investigating the person who called in the threat, and is working with the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office and the FBI Joint Terrorism Taskforce to determine where the call came from.

The weekend’s tumultuous events came just days after the City released statistics indicating a comprehensive decrease in crime here in Hoboken.