Wayne Stabbing Leads To Weapons Possession Charges: Police

WAYNE, NJ — Two Wayne men were charged with weapons possession after one of them walked into a local emergency room with multiple stab wounds, police said.

Asante Cugliari, 23, arrived at the emergency room at 4:28 a.m. Sunday, police said. He had multiple stab wounds to his leg, face and abdomen which required surgery to repair, police said.

Cugliari told police that he and Joseph Derissio, 23, were at a home on Cecilia Driver when an “argument related to drug use” happened, and eventually “became heated,” police said.

Cugliari reported that Derissio stabbed him when the argument turned physical, and he fled the house, being driven to the hospital by the woman who lived at the home.

Officers responded to the Cecilia Drive home looking for Derissio, where they found blood and “other obvious sings of a struggle,” police said. A bloody knife was also found in the home.

Officers set up a perimeter and begun searching for Derissio, who was later found in the Wayne Department of Public Works yard. Police said he was in possession of illegal drugs at the time he was arrested.

Derissio claimed that he was “attacked” with the knife by Cugliari first, but police said Derissio’s only injuries were from “strikes and bites.”

However, police say Cugliari admitted that he initially produced a knife as a threat, but claimed that he never approached Derissio with it. Cugliari claimed that he placed the knife down, and that Derissio then picked it up and attacked him, according to police.

Derissio is charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and criminal trespass. He was charged on a complaint warrant and placed in Passaic County Jail, pending a detention hearing.

Cugliari is charged with possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose on a complaint summons, in accordance with bail reform guidelines. He was later released.