Police charge man with risking widespread injury SAYREVILLE –– A borough road was blocked off for several hours last week when a resident barricaded himself in his home and threatened to blow the house up, according to police. Michael S. Pignataro, 36, of Nimitz Place, was eventually arrested and charged with terroristic threats, risk of widespread injury or damage, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose after police forcibly broke into his house Dec. 14. Police were called to the home at 8:39 p.m. by a friend of Pignataro’s, who said the suspect had a machete and a pickax. The friend told police that Pignataro also used the machete to stick a notepad to the wall with a suicide note and a will. The friend, a 36-year-old North Brunswick man, left the house and called police after Pignataro allegedly swung a pickax at him. Pignataro then barricaded himself in the house by screwing the front door shut with 2-by-4 boards and a screw gun, according to police. Police surrounded the house and blocked off Nimitz Place and MacArthur Avenue for three hours, Sayreville Police Detective Douglas Sprague said. Pignataro at one point threatened to knock the gas pipe off the heater to blow the house up with himself in it, Sprague said. When Pignataro refused to exit his home, the Middlesex County Special Operations Response Team [SORT] and Sprague, the team’s deputy commander, gained entry through the front door of the house by using a two-man ram. The team later used the same ram to open the door of a bedroom where police said Pignataro was hiding. The door had been fortified using sheet rock and a heavy dresser. The team then placed Pignataro under arrest without further incident. He was transported to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy for observation. He was being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick. His bail was set at $50,000 with no 10 percent option.