After getting pulled over for traffic violations, a Montclair man punched and kicked police officers as they tried to search him, police said.

An officer took note of Kevin Davis’s Toyota pickup truck since it had a half-ripped-off inspection sticker, and Davis, 45, wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, according to authorities. Police stopped the truck on Elmwood Avenue on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 5:12 p.m., and they soon learned that the Essex County Sheriff’s Department was trying to track Davis down for an unspecified offense, according to police.

As officers were placing him under arrest, they brought him to the back of his own truck to be searched, but he would not keep his hands planted on the pickup as he was told, police said. Then, as officers tried to cuff him, Davis turned around forcefully, hitting one of the officers in the left eye with a closed fist, authorities indicated.

As officers wrestled the motorist to the ground, he continued peppering them with punches and kicks, police said. One of the officers involved in the skirmish received a black eye while another needed to get three stitches in his right thumb, officials said.

Davis was charged with resisting arrest and three counts of aggravated assault on police officers. His bail was set at $15,000 bond, or $1,500 in cash. Police also issued him two summonses for failing to get the car inspected and for not wearing a seatbelt.

Suspect shoves woman after swiping cash

A Montclair man took money out of the cash register of a Bloomfield Avenue Chinese restaurant and pushed aside the owner’s wife, who was holding an infant in her arms, as he tried to reach the exit, police said.

According to police, the suspect walked into the New Jin Lin Chinese Restaurant at 350 Bloomfield Ave. and tried to buy a soda. But when the victim popped open the register, the customer lunged over the counter and grabbed money out of the cash drawer, according to police.

When he tried to leave, the owner’s wife, cradling their newborn baby in her arms, stood in front of the door to block his escape and the suspect pushed her out of the way, police said. She did not fall and neither she nor the baby was hurt, officials noted.

Authorities received a 9-1-1 call from the restaurant indicating the suspect had made off with $270 and had run eastward down the avenue at 10:38 p.m. Monday, Aug. 4, police said.

An officer later watched as two men, who were sprinting, turned onto Union Street from Gates Avenue and headed into someone’s driveway, according to authorities.

Reinforcements were called in and police established a perimeter around the area. Then an officer spotted a man, wearing blue jeans and no shirt, lying on his back in a driveway on Union Street, hiding between a car and a house, police said.

Sheldon Brissett, 21, of Montclair, was pulled out of his hiding place. The victims identified Brisset as the suspect and officers found the stolen money in his pants pocket, officials said.

Brissett, who was the only customer in the restaurant at the time of the crime, was arrested and charged with robbery and his bail was set at $35,000 bond, or $3,500 in cash, police said. He told officers he needed the money to pay his probation, according to police.

Assault suspect found in alley next to police HQ, cops say

A Massachusetts man who punched a patron of a Park Street bar in the face and ran off this past Saturday night chose a poor location to take refuge from the law: An alleyway next to police headquarters, authorities said.

George Fiscanaro, 40, of Salem, Mass., socked a man from Nutley, thereby cutting open his upper lip, as the victim and a group of friends sat outside Just Jake’s waiting for a taxi at 2 a.m. on Aug. 9, according to police. Before he decked the victim and ran away, Fiscanaro approached the group and started "mouthing off," the Nutley resident told investigators, although he couldn’t remember exactly what was said, police noted.

EMTs from the Montclair Volunteer Ambulance Unit took the victim to University Hospital in Newark.

Later that morning, an officer found a man matching witness descriptions of Fiscanaro in the alley between the Morgan Manhattan Building at 641 Bloomfield Ave. and police headquarters, officials said. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

• Officers could smell the odor of marijuana "at least 10 feet away" from a suspicious vehicle on Walden Place at about 8 p.m. last Tuesday, Aug. 5, police said.

  Winst Howard, 18, of Montclair, was behind the wheel of the Chevrolet Impala, which was in a parking lot bordering a Montclair Kimberley Academy athletic field and an apartment complex, according to police. In the passenger seat was Derek Vandiver, 19, also of Montclair, police said.

  As investigators walked toward the car, they smelled the scent of marijuana and saw that Howard was holding a medium-sized bag of weed in his right hand, police said. Officers found a second bag filled with the drug wedged between the passenger seat and door, according to police, and both men were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana.

• An officer grew suspicious of a cyclist riding north on Orange Road after the man on the bike kept looking over his shoulder after the patrol car had passed by, heading in the opposite direction, police said.

  Considering the recent rash of bike thefts, the officer about-faced and stopped the cyclist, Gene Blue, 52, of Montclair, at the corner of Orange Road and Willowmere Avenue at just after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 6, according to police.

  During an interview, the officer asked if Blue had any weapons on him, and Blue’s hands began to tremble and he otherwise seemed unnerved, police said. When the officer repeated the question, Blue said he had two bags of cocaine in his left front pants pocket, authorities said. After the officer found the two small bags of cocaine, he arrested and charged Blue with possession of a controlled dangerous substance, police said.

A burglar broke into a shed on Linden Avenue and stole a Diamondback mountain bike worth $600 at some point between 8 p.m. on Aug. 3 and 4:25 p.m. Aug. 5, police said. Two bikes outside the shed, which were not chained to anything, were not stolen. The suspect might have also tried accessing a garage on a neighboring property, but was scared off by the aggressive barking of the neighbors’ dog, police said. After hearing the fierce barking, one of the neighbors looked out his window and saw an unfamiliar white truck parked outside his house.

After he ran over an orange "yield to pedestrians" sign that was posted in the road at the intersection of North Fullerton Avenue and Munn Street, a motorist from Montclair was charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.

Montclair resident Peter Bieber III, 49, was driving a 2006 Jeep Wrangler when he strayed into the other lane of traffic, crossing over two solid yellow lines, and ran over the sign at 1:42 a.m. last Wednesday, Aug. 6, police said.

Officers pulled Bieber over at the corner of Claremont Avenue and North Willow Street, and they noticed his eyes were watery, his eyelids were drooping and he smelled of liquor, authorities said.

Bieber told police he had consumed a cocktail on the train and then, 45 minutes before he was stopped, he’d finished two beers, according to police. After failing sobriety tests, he was arrested and charged with DWI, careless driving, DWI within 1,000 feet of Immaculate Conception High School and failure to wear a seatbelt, police said.

• Ronnie Singletary, 47, of Montclair, was arrested and charged with having outstanding warrants after getting pulled over as he left the Clar-Pine Gulf Service Center on Claremont Avenue at 6:23 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6.

  An officer ran the license plate number of Singletary’s Jeep after it pulled out of the station and found that the driver’s license was suspended and he had outstanding warrants from Roselle Park for $1,000 and out of Belleville for $257, police indicated. Singletary was stopped at the corner of Pine Street and Bloomfield Avenue, arrested and given a summons for driving while his license was suspended, according to authorities. Montclair police then handed him over to Roselle Park authorities.

• An Irvington man was arrested on an outstanding warrant after police got a call about a group of people trespassing on a front porch on Mission Street, none of whom resided at the home or were visiting anyone who did, police said.

  Most of the group left once officers arrived at 7:48 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9, but Shamor Beamon, 23, was still seated on the porch and he told police he was there to visit a cousin, but he could not provide a name for his relative, authorities said. As he was being questioned, Beamon seemed on edge, his hands and face trembling uncontrollably, police noted. When officers ran a computer check on his name, they found he had an outstanding Montclair warrant for $500, and he was arrested, police said. He was also charged with trespassing.

• Montclair officers took custody of Carl Simpson, 52, of East Orange, Friday, Aug. 8 at 5:53 p.m. from the East Orange Police Department and charged him with having a criminal warrant issued out of Montclair for $435.

• Vandals made holes in two windows of Nishuane Elementary School sometime overnight between Aug. 4 at 4 p.m. and the next day at 9:30 a.m., police said. Both damaged windows were on the north side of the building. A 4-by-6-inch hole was made in one of the windows to a classroom on the first floor, while a smaller hole was made in a hallway window on the same floor.
• A Hummer parked in a driveway on Tuers Place had several deep scratches keyed into the passenger side and an "X" etched into the rear door at some point overnight between Aug. 4 at 4:30 p.m. and Aug. 5 at 8:30 a.m., police said.
• A large rock was thrown through the windshield of a 1993 Honda Civic parked on Mission Street, near the corner of Bloomfield Avenue, sometime on Aug. 5 between midnight and just after 7 in the morning.

  — DAN PROCHILO

  "Police news" is compiled by The Montclair Times from information provided by the Montclair Police Department. The information is released to the press at the discretion of the department and may not represent the total scope of police activity. Accounts that indicate charges pending against an individual do not imply guilt or innocence.