animals!

Arrest man at festival on five charges

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Police arrested a Jersey City man with a switchblade while breaking up a fight at the Jersey City Puerto Rican Heritage Festival at Exchange Place Sunday evening, according to police reports.

Armando Roman, the city's fire director and president of the festival's committee, said last night that the incident began when two teenage girls got into a fight and started pulling each other's hair.

Roman, who was there Sunday night when the fight started at about 7 p.m., said about five males walked "aggressively" toward the area and that when cops told them to leave, one man didn't and he was arrested.

Henry Panlagua, 29, of Clifton Place, was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, disorderly conduct, failure to disperse, resisting arrest and unlawful possession of a weapon, reports said.

A lot of people were jockeying or running to get a front row seat to the fight, which in itself became more of a problem than the original combatants, said police spokesman Stan H. Eason. Police quickly extinguished the problem, he said.

But Armando said that while there were hundreds if not thousands in the area no disturbance ever broke out.

"It was two girls fighting. I was there," Roman said. "Several hundred fighting? Absolutely not!"

The report said Panlagua cursed at the officers and called them "pigs" and he refused to leave, adding that Panlagua smelled of alcohol.

When an officer approached Panlagua he extended his right arm, nearly striking the officer in the face with a camera, reports said.

Panlagua resisted arrest but was cuffed as he continued to yell obscenities, reports said, adding that police found the knife in his pocket.