Cops: Substance in fugitive's car not cyanide

Five people, including a fugitive whom federal law enforcement officers arrested in the Bellmore post office Friday, were washed down and treated at a hospital for possible exposure to cyanide after the officers found a jar that may have contained the substance in a stolen car she had been using.

The discovery of the jar, labeled sodium cyanide, prompted federal and local officials to scramble to contain it and carefully isolate anyone who may have been exposed to it.

A dozen trucks and dozens more police cars choked Centre Avenue and Merrick Road in the hours before officials determined that the substance found in the car was harmless, despite its labeling.

Preliminary tests ruled that the substance in the jar was neither cyanide nor harmful.

In addition to the suspect, who told police her name was Wendy Cavanaugh, three marshals and a Nassau police medical technician were decontaminated, Nassau Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith said. He could not immediately say what charges the woman faces or when she would be arraigned.

The woman, arrested by federal marshals about 10 a.m., was wanted on charges of identity fraud, theft and forgery in Texas and Arkansas, said a marshals' office spokesman.

Smith said the chaos began as the marshals, who had tailed the woman, arrested her in the post office lobby as she picked up packages of what turned out to be clothes and costume jewelry.

Shortly after Cavanaugh's arrest, officers who searched her car found the chemical jar.

The mailed packages were also treated gingerly, as it was unclear whether they contained potentially harmful substances, too, Smith said.

"What ordinarily would be a routine apprehension of a fugitive turns out to be much, much more," Smith said at the scene, which was not cleared until 3 p.m.

Initial confusion at the scene generated erroneous reports that someone may have ingested a poisonous substance, or that the suspect had tossed a harmful substance onto people as officers closed in on her.

With John Valenti