On behalf of the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Chairman Bruce H. Bergen and Vice Chairman Sergio Granados presented resolutions to individuals and agencies in honor of their heroic efforts in finding and defusing pipe bombs and the arrest of a suspect believed to have been involved with the incident.
Those honored include the two men—Lee Parker and Ivan White–who found the suspicious backpack in Elizabeth containing the pipe bombs and then reported it to Elizabeth police; Harinder Bains, the Linden bar/deli owner who reported the suspect wanted in connection with the pipe bombs; and the two Linden Police officers, Angel Padilla and Peter Hammer, who apprehended the suspect in connection with the incident.
The agencies that were honored included the Union County Bomb Squad, which safely handled the pipe bombs, the Union County Police who responded to the scene where the pipe bombs were discovered and also to the scene of the apprehension in Linden, the Union County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Unit and the Sheriff’s K-9 Squad, which was responded to the scene of the pipe bombs and was used throughout the area and incident; the Linden Police department as a whole unit for their role in the apprehension; the Union County Office of Emergency Management; the Elizabeth Police and Fire Departments as a whole which responded to the pipe bomb incident and notified all other agencies.
(Photos by Jim Lowney/County of Union)