Fight over Cigarette Smoke in Mahwah NJ Leads to Arrests, Assault Charges for Two Ramapo College Students
Police recently arrested two college students in Mahwah NJ after the two men allegedly got into a violent altercation over cigarette smoke.
The incident went down at the College Park Apartments, a dorm apartment complex at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah, NJ. One of the students, a 19-year-old from Wyckoff NJ, reportedly became upset at two individuals who were smoking outside the building because their cigarette smoke was flowing into his dorm room.
The two people reportedly smoking cigarettes were a 22-year-old exchange student at the Mahwah college and a 22-year-old man from Arlington, Virginia. The Virginia man is not a student at Ramapo College.
Authorities later described the initial exchange between the students as a “heated argument.” The Wyckoff NJ student reportedly walked outside his dorm room and confronted the smokers. He then allegedly went back inside the building, grabbed a knife, and returned to continue the argument with the smokers.
The verbal argument soon turned physical, with the students reportedly getting into a fistfight. At some point during the fight, the Wyckoff student allegedly brandished the knife and attempted to stab at least one person. The other individuals involved in the fight were able to knock the weapon out of the main suspect’s hands.
The Wyckoff student has been charged with multiple crimes, including aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
The other suspects were placed under arrest and charged with simple assault, a disorderly persons offense that does not carry the same kind of penalties as an aggravated assault charge.
In the immediate aftermath of the violent altercation, both college students involved in the fight were suspended from Ramapo College.
For more information about this case, go to the NJ.com article, “Ramapo College Students Charged after Fight over Cigarette Smoke.”