By JOHN HOLL
The New York Times
Following an intense weeklong manhunt, authorities arrested a man on this morning and charged him with the shooting death of an off-duty police officer from Paterson, N.J.
About 6:30 a.m. a multi-agency task force stormed an apartment building in Irvington, N.J., based on information from a tipster, said Lt. Anthony Traina of the Paterson Police Department.
The police said they had Teddy Charlemagne, 23, in custody and were interrogating him.
Details of the arrest were not immediately available but officials planned to provide more specifics in a news conference scheduled for this afternoon.
On Jan. 7, Officer Tyron D. Franklin, 23, was inside the Broadway Fried Chicken restaurant in Paterson around 1 a.m. when a gunman entered the store and demanded money. Following a brief scuffle, the man shot Officer Franklin, a rookie on the force who was unarmed at the time.
Officer Franklin, the father of a 16-month-old son, was buried on Saturday with full honors.
The authorities had offered a $60,000 reward for the arrest of Officer Franklin’s killer and Lieutenant Traina said a scholarship fund for the officer’s son had been established at a local bank.
Paterson police along with county, state and Federal officials had released a composite sketch of the suspect based on accounts from witnesses and said the suspect appeared to be driving a light colored minivan. Twice, officers believed they had captured the suspect. Once following a car chase in East Orange and last week after surrounding an apartment building in Jersey City. Both incidents were cases of mistaken identity, Lieutenant Traina said.