When police officers take breaks, that doesn't mean they are off-duty.

A state police investigator on his way to grab lunch at Auburn's Wegmans grocery store Saturday disrupted a confrontation involving a knife just outside of the store.

Joel Pinker - an Auburn resident who works out of the state police barracks in Waterloo and covers investigations in Cayuga and Seneca counties - observed one man begin yelling at another man outside Wegmans.

As the verbal confrontation escalated at about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Pinker heard the other man say: "What are you going to do stab me?"

At this instigation, Gregory J. Decker, Jr., 23, of 5 Bellevue Place, Auburn, allegedly pulled out a Smith and Wesson SWAT knife with a locking blade.

Pinker pulled out his service weapon in response, told Decker to drop the knife and hit the ground. Pinker said he had to give the order three or four times before Decker complied.

Decker, whose occupation is listed as paving, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of second-degree menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.

The argument may have been over a female, Pinker said, and noted that two women were witnesses to the confrontation and made comments to Decker asking him to calm down.

Pinker had a passerby enter the store and call 911, and the Auburn Police Department responded to arrest Decker.

After the APD responded, Pinker finished his lunch at Wegmans before going to the APD station to make a statement.

Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net