It hadn't just been a slow night for Clifton Police Officer Steve Farrell; it had also been a lonely one. Even the false alarms, the bane of most patrol cops' existence, were few and far between that night. What little action there was, car accidents, and the like, seemed to be happening on the other side of town as Farrell navigated his cruiser down the concrete chute near where Route 46 east hooks up with routes 20 and 21 along the banks of the Passaic River.
 |
| Passaic River |
That was when he spotted Marti, who came whipping down the highway past Farrell's new cruiser, a black one that the department had chosen because it was less conspicuous than the old white models. "He was just out of control, driving nuts, you know," Farrell recalled. At first, Marti seemed oblivious to the fact that he was being tailed by a cop. "He really didn't know I was behind him for a while," and that gave Farrell time to punch Marti's license plate up on his mobile computer. "It came back 'Not on File' and I'm thinking, 'maybe I'm just dyslexic," Farrell said. He radioed his desk to double check. He had been right. There was no record of the license plate.
There was nothing particularly alarming about that. On that stretch of Route 46, it's common for police to encounter drivers with invalid license plates, or expired drivers licenses, often even outstanding warrants, and often, those drivers, when faced with the prospect of being pulled over, will run.
The truth was, there was no way that he could have known that Omar Marti, the guy behind the wheel of the 1989 Nissan, was a dangerous man. Even if Marti's entire life history had flashed across the screen of Farrell's mobile computer, it would have shown nothing but the resume of a small time wannabe hood. There were no records that would have indicated that he was armed to the teeth, or that he was prepared as he later told friends and family members to die rather than face jail time. "He was driving like an asshole...there was nothing more to it...there were really no indicators at that point that I was going to be getting myself into a real mess that night," Farrell said.
Even if Farrell had been able to instantaneously access Omar Marti's name and every detail of his life, there would have been nothing to warn him. In the subterranean world of drug runners and gunmen, Omar Marti was still a nobody.
Farrell hit his lights and siren.
email
print
default
increase
decrease
