A YEAR LATER, A SHOOTING SUSPECT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 9, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Three Star P | NEWS | Page B03

A 33-year-old New York City man arrested Thursday by city police and charged with possessing a stolen car was wanted for a shooting in Englewood a year ago, police said.

Eric Flake was wanted for two counts of attempted murder, four counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of gun possession in the Nov. 18, 1989, shooting of Neville G. Tyrell of Teaneck, said Englewood Detective Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley.

Flake was arrested at 1 a.m. Thursday along with Herbert Smith, 35, of New York City, who was a passenger in the car Flake was driving.

Tinsley said Police Officer James Morgan ran a check on the car’s license plate when Flake made a turn without signaling. Morgan learned the car was stolen from Prince George County, Md., Tinsley said.

Morgan, assisted by officers George Coleman and Timothy Riley, pulled the car over and arrested the men. Flake and Smith, also charged with possession of stolen property, were being held in the Bergen County Jail on $5,000 bail.

As they were processing the men at the Englewood police station, Tinsley said, the officers discovered that Flake was wanted for contempt of court, attempted murder, and related charges in connection with the shooting of Tyrell.

Tinsley said the police report of that incident indicated that Flake, who was standing with a friend at Lafayette Place and Parkview Drive, waved Tyrell’s car over and fired several shots as Tyrell rolled down his window.

One shot passed through Tyrell’s arm and struck his chest, according to the report. Tyrell drove to Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, where he was treated and released.

SUSPECT IN BURGLARY SPREE WAS OUT ON BAIL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, October 26, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page B01

The chief suspect in more than 40 cat burglaries in four Bergen County communities over the past two months had been arrested on burglary charges in one of the towns in July and freed on bail.

Celious Lee Harmon of Teaneck, who was arrested Monday night on burglary charges, had spent nearly a month this summer in the Bergen County Jail after being arrested on burglary charges in Englewood, police said.

Harmon, who was captured Monday as he tried to flee from police at the Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge bus terminal in Manhattan, is fighting extradition to New Jersey, said Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso.

Police say that after Harmon posted $5,000 bail on the Englewood charges, he began burglarizing homes in Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Fort Lee, and Tenafly in early September.

Orso said Harmon, 28, often rode the bus from New York City into affluent sections of the communities, broke into homes and stole valuables, and then rode the bus back across the bridge to the bus terminal, where he sold the stolen goods to support a crack cocaine habit.

Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley of Englewood said that when the four-town burglary spree began Sept. 5, the Englewood Police Department knew who its chief suspect was. So did the Fort Lee Police Department.

“We knew who we were looking for because we had a set of footprints and a set of fingerprints,” Orso said. “We also knew he was traveling by bus between New York and New Jersey. “

The four communities formed a 30-person task force to track him down, but he eluded them. By the time he was captured Monday, he was suspected of more than 40 home burglaries in the four towns.

He was arrested after a chase by two Fort Lee and two Port Authority police officers at 180th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan.

Tinsley said that Harmon’s arrest in Englewood in July came after a chase. He allegedly had broken into a home in the East Hill section of city. Police also found property stolen from a residence on Gloucester Street strewn along the path of the chase.

Harmon was arrested in Fort Lee in 1985 and sentenced to five years in prison after conviction on three counts of burglary, two counts of receiving stolen goods, two counts for possession of burglary tools, and two counts of resisting arrest. He was also a suspect in 18 other burglaries in Fort Lee, Orso said. He was paroled in 1988.

ENGLEWOOD PILOT KILLED IN N.Y. ACCIDENT; PLANE CRASHES INTO HILLTOP LAKE IN FOG

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, September 21, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

A 44-year-old Englewood man who was trying to land his plane in dense fog and rain at an upstate New York airport was killed Wednesday when the plane crashed into a hilltop lake.

Divers removed the body of Mark Jacob Pressburger, 44, from the bottom of Sand Pond near Callicoon at about 2 p.m. Thursday.

Trooper Robert Gillespie, a spokesman for the New York State Police, said Pressburger was flying to meet his wife at the Concord Resort Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y., on Wednesday night.

Gillespie said Pressburger was apparently thrown clear of the aircraft when it shattered into three pieces as it hit the water.

“It appeared he was the only person on the plane,” Gillespie said. “They located his body at the bottom of the lake, near the wreckage of the plane.”

Greg Feith, an investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said the Piper Apache took off from Teterboro Airport at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

As Pressburger approached Sullivan County Airport in White Lake, he had trouble attempting a landing on his first pass, Feith said, and was told to circle around and climb to 4,000 feet.

Airport officials and investigators reported that visibility in the area was poor due to dense fog and rain, and that the cloud cover was at 300 feet.

Pressburger, who an official said was co-owner of Bergen Wholesale Meats in Hackensack, acknowledged the instructions. Shortly afterward, at around 5:45 p.m., air controllers lost radio and radar contact with the plane in the Sand Pond area, about 11 miles northwest of the airport.

Gillespie said police began receiving calls reporting a crash shortly after 6 p.m. Searchers that night found debris from the plane, he said, but could not find the plane itself.

On Thursday morning, the searchers returned to Sand Pond Lake and found an oil slick that led them to the wreckage.

Feith said it might take weeks to determine the cause of the crash.

This article contains material from The Associated Press.

Caption: ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO – Divers returning ashore after finding the body of a pilot whose plane crashed Wednesday night in a Sullivan County, N.Y., lake.