A New Jersey man flouted the coronavirus ban on gatherings by throwing a jam-packed party for almost 50 people in his tiny one-bedroom apartment, according to officials.
“Ewing Township Police broke up a party with 47 people – including a DJ – crammed into a 550-square foot apartment,” Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted Saturday about the dangerous early-hours bash that day.
“The organizer was charged, as they should have been and deserved to be,” he revealed of the 54-year-old tenant who was issued two citations for disorderly persons.
“This is not a game. Stay home. Be smart,” he warned, later during a press conference using the case as an example of what “not to do.”
“This is a pass-fail test. This is life and death,” he said of the orders to stay away from others during the deadly spread of the contagion in the Garden State.
Ewing police broke up the raging party at the one-bed, one-bath apartment on Concord Avenue at 1 a.m. Saturday after noise complaints, Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office revealed in a statement.
Cops found a party “that included a DJ with speakers, alcohol and the smell of marijuana,” the statement said. “Almost all of the people at the party were squeezed together inside,” the prosecutors noted.
Prosecutor Angelo Onofri reminded locals that the executive orders to stay home “are mandates, not suggestions.”
“Mercer County and the entire state of New Jersey will not tolerate such irresponsible, criminal behavior, and violators will be prosecuted,” Onofri warned.
“Not only are these actions illegal, but in a time where such reckless conduct could endanger family, loved ones, first responders and the community at large, they are also unethical.”