‘Suspicious’ package gets big response at FOP HQ
TRENTON >> In the wake of weekend bombings in New York and New Jersey, a large police presence swarmed and shutdown a stretch of West State Street in downtown Trenton Tuesday afternoon after a suspicious brown package was discovered at the NJ State Fraternal Order of Police building.
Authorities determined the box was “trash,” but FOP President Robert W. Fox said police were “on heightened alert” because of the high-profile bombings that had occurred in New York City and Seaside Park over the weekend.
“You just have to be extra careful,” Fox said .“You never know what’ s going on .”
A civilian reported the suspicious box to employees at the FOP, and they called 911 about 12:19 p.m. Tuesday, according to Fox. There was a massive emergency response at the FOP’s state headquarters at the corner of West State and North Willow streets that included police, firefighters, officers on bicycles and a bombsniffing dog.
Ahmad Khan Rahami, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was reportedly born in Afghanistan in 1988, is the New York, Seaside Park and Elizabeth bombing suspect who was captured Monday and charged with attempted murder of a law-enforcement official.
The attack in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood injured 29 people Saturday night. The Saturday morning Seaside Park bombing did not injure anyone but forced a 5K Marine charity race to be canceled. Late Sunday night into Monday morning, one of the five devices found at the Elizabeth train station exploded while a bomb squad robot tried to disarm it. No one was hurt in that incident.
With the bombing incidents fresh in mind, someone spotted a suspicious package in front of the FOP building on the 100 block of West State Street shortly after city crews had cleared garbage from the sidewalks Tuesday afternoon, according to Fox. He said a civilian noticed a brown, unmarked 18-inch by 18-inch by 18-inch box, which was fewer than 10 feet away from the FOP building. The civilian alerted employees inside the building, and the workers called 911, Fox said.
Police responded in force; nearby buildings did not appear to have been evacuated, but police ordered people back after sectioning off city streets with yellow crime scene tape. Red fire trucks blocked traffic.
Clusters of workers — some talking on cellphones and some smoking cigarettes — gathered outside to take in the scene.
Trenton Police Lt. Stephen Varn confirmed the “suspicious package” was actually an empty box that turned out to be trash. “Apparently it was placed out with some other garbage, and everything was taken except for the box,” Varn said, “and someone saw it and called it in as suspicious.”
The scene was cleared around 2:05 p.m. Tuesday. After emergency crews left the scene, a woman sat inside the fraternal police building eating a sandwich as if nothing had happened.