Authorities reportedly recovered a rifle inside a crashed vehicle under investigation for a carjacking in Paterson Sunday evening.
Paterson Street Crimes unit began to follow a reportedly carjacked vehicle, but the driver refused to acknowledge officers' requests to pull over.
After a high-speed pursuit through several Paterson neighborhoods, officers were ordered to discontinue the chase due to safety concerns shortly before 7:40 p.m.
Shortly after, police found the vehicle crashed in the 400 block of 10th Avenue. A search of the car revealed an AR-15 rifle in the back seat, but several occupants fled from the vehicle on foot and remained at large.
According to National Public Radio, AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons are civilian versions of military weapons that gun control advocates say aren't very different.
The AR-15, like its military version, is designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers, hence the term assault-style rifle, gun control advocates told NPR in 2018.