A 33-year-old Elmwood Park man is facing aggravated assault and weapons charges after police say he pointed a black rifle-like weapon at a neighbor during a dispute on Mola Boulevard, then vanished for nearly a full day before officers tracked him down at his home. The weapon turned out to be an AR-style paintball gun, but that did nothing to lower the stakes for Sylvester Irving, who now sits in the Bergen County Jail.
According to Daily Voice, the confrontation began on Monday, September 7, when a caller reported that her boyfriend had been threatened by a neighbor while he was smoking outside. Elmwood Park Police Chief Michael Foligno said the incident started that day, with the victim telling police the neighbor appeared intoxicated during the confrontation. Investigators say Irving yelled at the victim before returning carrying the black rifle-like weapon and pointing it directly at him.
The victim retreated inside his home and waited there for police to arrive, according to the same report. Officers searched the area for Irving throughout the shift but were unable to find him, and by the time they secured an arrest warrant charging him with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, he had already been entered into the National Crime Information Center as a wanted person. That FBI-maintained database, created in 1967 and run by the Bureau's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, gives law enforcement agencies nationwide a way to flag suspects with active warrants across state and municipal lines, according to the FBI.
Officers Return a Day Later to Find Him Waiting Outside
Police went back to Mola Boulevard on Tuesday, September 8, after a caller reported that Irving was sitting outside his apartment. Officers confirmed the active arrest warrant and took him into custody without further incident, per the same report. They also found a black AR-style paintball gun matching the description the victim had given, and secured it before bringing it to police headquarters, where Irving was processed and then taken to the Bergen County Jail.
Mola Boulevard sits in a densely populated stretch of Elmwood Park lined with multi-family homes, townhouses, and large apartment complexes, including the Elmwood Village development at 24 Mola Boulevard, according to RentCafe. That kind of shared residential setting puts neighbors in frequent close-proximity contact, a dynamic that can turn small disagreements into volatile confrontations fast. Elmwood Park itself is a compact suburban borough of roughly 2.7 square miles and about 20,700 residents, sitting directly across the Passaic River from Paterson.
Why a Paintball Gun Triggered Felony-Level Charges
Under New Jersey law, paintball markers are legally classified as dangerous weapons capable of inflicting serious bodily harm, and using one for an unlawful purpose against a person is a third-degree crime carrying up to five years in state prison, according to The Law Offices of William C. Fay IV. Separately, state statute treats possessing an imitation firearm — defined as any device reasonably capable of being mistaken for a real gun — under circumstances suggesting unlawful purpose as a fourth-degree crime punishable by up to 18 months in prison, per William Proetta Criminal Law.
Pointing a firearm or an imitation weapon at another person under circumstances showing extreme indifference to human life also qualifies as aggravated assault, an indictable offense carrying potential state prison time, according to Monmouth County Criminal Lawyers. The same firm notes that threatening a violent crime with the purpose to terrorize someone, or in reckless disregard of causing terror, is a third-degree crime carrying three to five years in prison — the legal basis for the terroristic threats charge Irving now faces. AR-style paintball markers built to resemble military assault rifles are sold over the counter without any firearm permit, but brandishing one during a public or residential dispute routinely triggers a full felony response because bystanders and officers cannot visually distinguish it from a real gun.
Pretrial Detention Rules Now Apply to the Case
Because Irving was arrested on a warrant for indictable weapons and violent offenses, New Jersey's 2017 Criminal Justice Reform Act governs what happens next. The law largely eliminated cash bail statewide, instead requiring defendants held at county facilities like the Bergen County Jail to undergo a judicial Public Safety Assessment within 48 hours that determines whether they remain detained or are released under conditions, according to Lustberg Law Offices.
Foligno, who has led the Elmwood Park Police Department since March 2014 and has also served as the borough's administrator since January 2019, is the department's top law enforcement and municipal official overseeing the case, per the department's own accounting. It remains unclear whether the paintball marker recovered by officers was loaded or modified in any way at the time of Irving's arrest.
