Nicole Gaudiano, Staff Writer
March 12, 2001, Monday
Copyright 2001 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
March 12, 2001, Monday; All Editions
(CLIFFSIDE PARK, N.J.) -- Police arrested a Cliffside Park man the day after he allegedly posed as a police officer and entered a school with a pellet gun.
Former student Andy Bazail, 19, of Anderson Avenue, told authorities he went to North Hudson Academy on Liberty Avenue on Thursday, posing as a police officer. Police were unsure why he went to the school, but he left without incident.
North Bergen Police Sgt. Gerald Sanvari said the unemployed man arrived at the school wearing a shirt with the word “police” marked onthe front, a badge, and a holstered weapon, later discovered to be a pellet gun.
“It looks just like a regular automatic,” Sanvari said.
He told a school official, Dennis McCarthy, that he was a Guttenberg police officer, but McCarthy checked up on him after he left the school.
Guttenberg police told the school that Bazail had no ties to their department, Sanvari said.
McCarthy also told police Bazail had previously stopped an employee of the school in Ridgefield to warn him about his car’s tinted windows.
Bazail was arrested Friday evening on a warrant from North Bergen.
He turned over a pellet gun, a gun belt, a holster, a handcuff case, a flashlight holder, and a blue T-shirt with “police” written on the front and back, Sanvari said.
Police searched his home and found a blank firing gun, a pistol case, and a black jacket with a Guttenberg police patch on the arm and a police scanner in the pocket.
He was charged with possession of a weapon in an educational facility and impersonating a police officer.
He is being held on $ 10,000 bond.