TRR photo by David Hulse Park rangers, state and local police interview members of a boating party last Sunday after receiving 911 reports of a man in their party brandishing an assault rifle near the Roebling Bridge. (Click for larger image)

Road rage report is false alarm

By DAVID HULSE

MINISINK FORD, NY — Several 911 calls reporting a man brandishing an assault rifle from a green van set state and local police in three counties searching for the vehicle last Sunday afternoon.

Motorists and visitors near the New York end of the Roebling Bridge had become alarmed at seeing a male with a rifle standing in the side-door opening of the van parked opposite the bridge ramp, apparently taking aim over the vehicle’s roof.

Told that the vehicle had headed south on Route 97, police pursued and notified police in neighboring Orange and Pike counties.

But there had been no flight, and the van turned up later at Kittatinny Campground in Minisink Ford, where its occupants, a Queens family, had taken two rafts out onto the river above Minisink Ford.

Park rangers and police intercepted the group as they floated downstream near the Roebling Bridge. Trooper Barry Falk said the assault rifle turned out to be a paint-ball rifle, which the family’s 13-year-old son was toying with as the group waited by the roadside for other members of their party to arrive.

Falk said whether it was firearm or stick, the pointing of a rifle was deemed as menacing and the boy and his parents would be required to answer in Family Court.

It is illegal for persons under 18 to use paintball, air and BB guns, Falk said.