ExploreCommunitiesChange paletteSign upLog incliffviewpilotNew Milford man who took gun to mall after shooting wasn’t with ambulance corps, chief sayscliffviewpilot.comYOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A U.S. Marine veteran who authorities said took a loaded gun to Monday night’s shooting at the Garden State Plaza responded entirely on his own and not as part of the New Milford Ambulance Corps, as erroneously reported elsewhere, a police official said this morning.Cody J. Donovan, 22, “wasn’t with the ambulance corps that night,” New Milford Police Chief Frank Papapietro told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “He ‘self-dispatched’ to the scene of the shooting.”Detective Ronald Salzano of the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management began following Donovan outside the mall just before 11 p.m. Monday because he was wearing a dark leather jacket and seemed suspicious.“No one knew whether this guy was with the shooter, or even if he was the shooter,” Papapietro said.A published report says the 6-foot, 190-pound Donovan told police he wanted to help catch 20-year-old Richard Shoop of Teaneck, who prompted a lockdown of the mall and a massive search that ended when his body was found with a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head.Police said they found Donovan carrying a loaded .45-caliber handgun — for which he didn’t have a permit — in his waistband.Donovan posted $25,000 bail Tuesday afternoon and was released from the Bergen County Jail pending grand jury action on second-degree weapons possession charges.“What possessed him to carry a loaded firearm to a scene like that is beyond me,” Papapietro told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “What we do know is that he was not part of any organized EMS response that night.”#IFTTT#WordPress@cliffviewpilotYou are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of , , , or ., Police said they found Donovan carrying a loaded .45-caliber handgun — for which he didn’t have a permit — in his waistband. Donovan posted $25,000 bail Tuesday afternoon and was released from the Bergen County Jail pending grand jury action on second-degree weapons possession charges., Cody J. Donovan, 22, was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon after a Bergen County detective arrested him at the mall around 11 p.m. Monday, as SWAT teams searched for a man who fired random shots from a rifle shortly before the mall was due to close at 9:30 p.m..