Man, 64, holds suspect with gun
http://www.nj.com/mercer/times/index.ssf?/mercer/times/05-05-B3QR1DAB.html
Man, 64, holds suspect with gun
05/05/01
By T.A. PARMALEE
Staff Writer
HAMILTON — A man returning from a stroll in a local garden came home
yesterday to find one of his windows broken.
So Karl Provost, 64, of the 2000 block of Kuser Road got his gun.
“At that point, I didn’t really know what I was dealing with and I felt
more comfortable with a gun in my hand,” Provost said. “That way, I knew
no one was getting hurt . . . including me.”
When Provost entered his bedroom brandishing the loaded gun — a rifle,
according to police — he found a stranger rooting through his things,
he said.
“The truth is, it wasn’t any trouble,” Provost said after yesterday’s
ordeal. “He saw the gun and said none of this is necessary . . . that he
wasn’t going to run.”
Even so, Provost kept the rifle pointed at the thinly built man “who
must have weighed only 120 pounds” and dialed 911, relating the
situation to a dispatcher.
“There must have been a small army of cars here in nothing flat,”
Provost said from his home. “I was on the phone until the cops came in.
You have to understand that the whole time, (he) was cooperating. The
place was a mess, but basically, he was sitting on my stereo.”
Police said yesterday the alleged burglar, whom they identified as
Alfredo Gonzales, 40, of Magazine Street in Newark, did not steal
anything from the home and cooperated with police. He was being held
last night in the township lockup in lieu of bail, police said. Gonzales
was a construction worker in the area, police said.
Although he admitted he was “a bit shaken up,” Provost said the incident
was not a big deal.
“Actually, it comes down on a very small scale,” he said. “This turned
out very good. All I ended up with was a busted window, and I’m fixing
that now.
“But I wasn’t scared,” Provost said. “I tell you, the big thing that
made life easy is that I read that the man wasn’t violent and he said he
wasn’t violent. I was ready to go along with that.”
Provost said the only item he was worried would be stolen was his
computer, which he had been using to research heart disease, an illness
he has battled many years. “Ten years ago, I couldn’t walk a thousand
feet, but recently I walked all over New York City,” he said.
Provost said he was retracing the steps he took during the incident and
realized he made several mistakes. “If this ever happens again, I’ll
handle it better,” he said.
Police said the incident remains under investigation by Officer Brian
Carvale and Detective Sgt. Joseph Mastropolo.
? 2001 The Times. Used with permission.
