A routine motorcycle stop on Two Bridges Road in Fairfield turned into a struggle over a switchblade on August 22, when a 44-year-old Hackensack man allegedly pulled the knife on an officer during his arrest, according to police. The officer, Cpl. Jeffrey Dean, had stopped the rider after noticing his black 2018 Harley-Davidson had no visible license plate. An off-duty Hackensack police detective who happened to be nearby ended up rushing in to help subdue the suspect.
According to Daily Voice, the rider was identified as Marcelo Valencia-Solis, who police said had a motorcycle license plate altered with electrical tape and additional plates stashed in his saddlebag. Valencia-Solis was wearing a denim vest displaying “Thunderguards” and “New Jersey” rockers, which police described as indications of membership or affiliation with the New Jersey chapter of the Thunderguards outlaw motorcycle gang. When Fairfield officers moved to handcuff him, authorities said he began reaching repeatedly toward his waistband.
Knife Pulled Mid-Arrest
As Dean grabbed Valencia-Solis's wrist to control his movements, authorities said the suspect pulled a switchblade from his pants pocket, holding it in a position where the blade could easily be engaged. Dean ordered him to drop the knife, and other Fairfield officers arrived at the scene as the confrontation unfolded. Off-duty Hackensack Police Detective Michael Reo, who saw the encounter from a nearby Wawa, rushed to help Dean.
Fairfield Police Chief Anthony G. Manna said Valencia-Solis dropped the knife only after repeated commands, and he commended the actions and bravery of both Dean and Reo. “Law enforcement encounters can quickly escalate with uncooperative suspects,” Manna said, according to the same account. Officers searching Valencia-Solis then found a loaded Ruger .380-caliber handgun in his waistband, authorities said.
Charges Stack Up Under Gang and Weapons Statutes
Valencia-Solis now faces a lengthy list of charges: gang criminality, resisting arrest, aggravated assault on a police officer, unlawful possession of a switchblade, unlawful possession of a handgun, and tampering with public records. Under state law, carrying a handgun without a valid permit is a second-degree crime punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum requiring at least 42 months before parole eligibility under New Jersey's Graves Act, according to LACE Law LLC. Possessing a switchblade is separately a fourth-degree crime carrying up to 18 months in prison, since state law requires an explainable lawful purpose for carrying such blades and generally does not treat self-defense outside the home as lawful justification, although rare, momentary circumstances in which a person arms themselves spontaneously to meet an immediate danger may qualify, per urban edc.
Valencia-Solis also faces a gang criminality charge. The charges include tampering with public records over the altered motorcycle plate and aggravated assault on a police officer. According to a New Jersey Courts opinion dated Feb 27, 2020, a defendant in State of New Jersey v. Naeem Livingston challenged the denial of a motion for a judgment of acquittal on an aggravated assault charge.
Thunderguards' History and an Inter-County Response
The Thunderguards Motorcycle Club was founded in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1965. In 2014, the Delaware Attorney General's Office filed a lawsuit under Delaware's criminal nuisance abatement law seeking to shut down the group's national clubhouse after authorities linked the property to 15 shootings and five homicides over an eight-year span. Outlaw biker groups are also discussed. According to the New Jersey Office of Law Enforcement Professional Standards' Thirteenth Oversight Report, a training course block reviewed various outlaw motorcycle club membership identification methods.
Fairfield sits roughly 15 miles west of Hackensack, where Valencia-Solis lives and where Detective Reo serves on the local police force; a Hackensack detective assisted Fairfield officers during the stop. Valencia-Solis has since been remanded to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark, where he awaits an initial Superior Court hearing as the case moves forward.
