NJ security guard arrested on weapon charges
Mahwah NJ June 3 2018 A security guard at a Route 17 truck stop was carrying a loaded handgun and wearing clothing that suggested he was a police officer, said Mahwah police who arrested him.
The defendant, 58-year-old Timothy M. Prahm of Secaucus, was one of three UMDNJ paramedics fired in 2008 after photos surfaced of them dressed as members of the KKK and holding a large wooden cross .
In the recent Mahwah incident, Detective Eric Larsen responded to a concerned citizen’s call from a highway truck stop and found Prahm “wearing a Jersey City Police Department tee-shirt, navy blue tactical pants and black police style boots,” township Police Chief James Batelli said.
Prahm also “displayed a silver badge on his belt and had a black bag on his right hip,” as well as a gravity knife, the chief said. “The silver badge later was determined to be a New Jersey paramedic badge.”
When Larsen asked whether he had a weapon, “Prahm’s behavior changed and he grew increasingly nervous,” Batelli said.
A search turned up a loaded 22-caliber handgun in his pants pocket, he said.
Prahm, who Batelli said has no connection to the Jersey City Police Department, was charged with two illegal weapons possession counts.
He was sent to the Bergen County Jail, only to be ordered released by a judge hours later, under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law.
Mahwah-Ramsey Daily Voice
