Ocean County Man Arrested For Gun Offenses

By Alyssa Riccardi,

15 hours ago

Nathaniel Chudkowski (Photo courtesy Ocean County Jail)

MANCHESTER – A Township man has been arrested and charged for recklessly shooting a firearm in the woods early Sunday morning, police said.

Around 2:09 a.m., Ptl. Maliff was patrolling in the the area of Manchester Boulevard and Wranglebrook Road when he heard several gunshots. He later identified the car coming from the area and pulled the vehicle over.

 

A 9mm handgun and ammunition were found inside the car, police said. The driver, Nathaniel Chudkowski, had fired the weapon into the wooded area of Manchester Boulevard while driving in the area.

“Due to the swift response and decisive actions of our officers any public safety threat was quickly eliminated,” Manchester Police said.

Chudkowski was charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, failure for a permit to carry holder to disclose to a law enforcement officer that they are carrying a handgun or that a handgun is stored in the vehicle, and consumption of alcohol by an authorized holder of a permit to carry a handgun. He was lodged in Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.

For clarification, New Jersey is a state that there is a duty to inform Law enforcement when stopped, correct?

Yup. Platkin will be all over this guy.........

FAFO.

The accusations, if true, is exactly what Bucky Beaver and Pussycat Platkin have been salivating to occur. Although shootings occur everyday here, they aren't done by the people that they have disdain for.

 

I don't know why we ( NJ gun organizations ) have not yet filed a lawsuit on "duty to inform"  A clear violation of the constitution 5th and probably 4th.  Maybe this guys lawyer will and get that charge dropped. 

what other right do you need to inform a law enforcement officer of.    are you required to identify as a republican or democrat during an encounter, and by the way,  what constitutes an encounter.  voluntary? involuntary?   time to get this one knocked down. come on ANJRPC stop waiting for court decisions and go on the attack.

Agree ⬆︎

4 hours ago, Downtownv said:

The accusations, if true, is exactly what Bucky Beaver and Pussycat Platkin have been salivating to occur. Although shootings occur everyday here, they aren't done by the people that they have disdain for.

 

Ignoring the Duty To Inform, this is definately going to be used against us CCW holders during the current court hearings.  Drinking and randomly shooting a gun out the window does not paint a good picture for CCW holders.   

One out of 33,000 is statistically insignificant.

Play stupid games, win...............

1 hour ago, Mr.Stu said:

One out of 33,000 is statistically insignificant.

Well, now you are thinking with common sense. But they will pound this until people reconsider applying for their permits.

2 minutes ago, Downtownv said:

Well, now you are thinking with common sense. But they will pound this until people reconsider applying for their permits.

Sure - because the gun made him do it 

Idiots will be idiots

12 hours ago, father-of-three said:

For clarification, New Jersey is a state that there is a duty to inform Law enforcement when stopped, correct?

yes. my paranoid ass doesn't want to say the word "gun" or "firearm" if i get pulled over, so i've got copies of my ccw with the reg in each of my vehicles, along with one in my wallet with my dl and fPid

6 hours ago, ESB said:

Ignoring the Duty To Inform, this is definately going to be used against us CCW holders during the current court hearings.  Drinking and randomly shooting a gun out the window does not paint a good picture for CCW holders.   

i don't think that they'll be able to make it stick as it's one person out of what?34,000+?

 

On 5/16/2024 at 11:36 AM, revenger said:

I don't know why we ( NJ gun organizations ) have not yet filed a lawsuit on "duty to inform"  A clear violation of the constitution 5th and probably 4th.  Maybe this guys lawyer will and get that charge dropped. 

what other right do you need to inform a law enforcement officer of.    are you required to identify as a republican or democrat during an encounter, and by the way,  what constitutes an encounter.  voluntary? involuntary?   time to get this one knocked down. come on ANJRPC stop waiting for court decisions and go on the attack.

True enough. What part of this guy's conduct (obtuse though it may have been) would have been analogous to illegal activity in 1789? Picture someone riding his horse home down Manchester Pike from the local tavern, stopping to take a pot shot at some target of opportunity off in the woods, then continuing on his way. Who thinks that, unless he inadvertantly hit a person, or damaged personal property, he would be charged with any kind of criminal violation, without even getting into the ludicrous topic of duty to inform during that time period?

17 hours ago, 1LtCAP said:

yes. my paranoid ass doesn't want to say the word "gun" or "firearm" if i get pulled over, so i've got copies of my ccw with the reg in each of my vehicles, along with one in my wallet with my dl and fPid

i don't think that they'll be able to make it stick as it's one person out of what?34,000+?

 

I've got copies of mine stashed in different places as well. How comfortable are you that if you needed to show a cop one of the copies, that he wouldn't scrutinize it closely enough to see that it was not the original, and charge you on that basis? After I made about 10 copies (I'm a bit OCD :-) I laminated the original and the copies to hopefully minimize that risk. My original came on the low-quality recycled toilet paper that NJ used for drivers licenses back in the day, so I thought laminating it was a good idea for several reasons. 

53 minutes ago, Grima Squeakersen said:

True enough. What part of this guy's conduct (obtuse though it may have been) would have been analogous to illegal activity in 1789? Picture someone riding his horse home down Manchester Pike from the local tavern, stopping to take a pot shot at some target of opportunity off in the woods, then continuing on his way. Who thinks that, unless he inadvertantly hit a person, or damaged personal property, he would be charged with any kind of criminal violation, without even getting into the ludicrous topic of duty to inform during that time period?

Some NJ townships have discharge laws also............

31 minutes ago, xXxplosive said:

Some NJ townships have discharge laws also............

Sadly, yes they do. And that makes pellet gun use in your own apartment technically a crime. 

FNJ  

7 hours ago, Grima Squeakersen said:

I've got copies of mine stashed in different places as well. How comfortable are you that if you needed to show a cop one of the copies, that he wouldn't scrutinize it closely enough to see that it was not the original, and charge you on that basis? After I made about 10 copies (I'm a bit OCD :-) I laminated the original and the copies to hopefully minimize that risk. My original came on the low-quality recycled toilet paper that NJ used for drivers licenses back in the day, so I thought laminating it was a good idea for several reasons. 

i don't think they can charge me for not showing them the original? there's a few guys transferring permits onto plastic. if they do however, i keep the original in my wallet. so if they do try that game, i'm still covered. i hope.

If you have a lawfully issued CCW, it does not matter if it's original, on paper or on plastic!  It does not matter is it's a copy!

There is an SBI# and a permit# on that card that can be verified by the issuing authority and that is all that matters!

"Charged with consumption of alcohol..." But they don't say on what basis. Did they give him a breathalyzer? Did he have an open container in the car? I've seen other stories on this, but these questions were not addressed.

 

Has there been another article on this?  I ask because "Recklessly shooting a firearm in the woods" is subjective and lacks context.  I know I'm overstating the obvious, but if he was really shooting his gun from a car on property that he does not own, that would probably be a problem in any of the other 49 states as well.

Carry permits are way too expensive and complicated in this state to do stuff like that, unless that's not what really happened.

One of the problems is there is NO place in NJ where you can just go out into the woods and shoot a handgun...unless it is your own property and your town has no discharge laws.  Sounds like he was just being a wahoo and blasting away out of his car while drinking too.  What a dumbass.

On 5/16/2024 at 8:57 PM, 1LtCAP said:

yes. my paranoid ass doesn't want to say the word "gun" or "firearm" if i get pulled over, so i've got copies of my ccw with the reg in each of my vehicles, along with one in my wallet with my dl and fPid

i don't think that they'll be able to make it stick as it's one person out of what?34,000+?

 

But you BETTER SAY that I have a gun or firearm in the car or you will be arrested.  Just handing them your permit without informing them you are carrying is not going to be enough in this state.

 

 

 

On 5/17/2024 at 10:46 PM, JohnnyB said:

If you have a lawfully issued CCW, it does not matter if it's original, on paper or on plastic!  It does not matter is it's a copy!

There is an SBI# and a permit# on that card that can be verified by the issuing authority and that is all that matters!

Great! Thanks! I have some waterproof HP plastic laser printer "paper" that I use to copy important cards and (small) documents that might be ruined if they got wet. Since I boat, surf, etc. I regard it as an important precaution, especially for stuff that the authoritae elects to print on really crappy stock. I think NJ must still have a warehouse somewhere full of the rejected toilet paper that they previously used for drivers licenses and registrations, because that's what my carry permit was printed on.

On 5/19/2024 at 6:10 PM, Tunaman said:

One of the problems is there is NO place in NJ where you can just go out into the woods and shoot a handgun...unless it is your own property and your town has no discharge laws.  Sounds like he was just being a wahoo and blasting away out of his car while drinking too.  What a dumbass.

My municipality is pretty rural, and afaik there is no prohibition on discharge. Nevertheless, since we are under NJSP jurisdiciton, I would be very concerned about some panicky Karen calling 911, saying there was a shooting in progress, and having NJSP SWAT show up on a testosterone high with itchy fingers.