A shootout in Jersey City at a grocery store today left a police officer dead as well as five others. Here’s what happened:
ABC NEWS 13 – One police officer was killed and three others were wounded, and there are five people dead inside a grocery store following a wild shootout and standoff in Jersey City Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities say the incident started at Bay View Cemetery just after noon, with an officer wounded in the shoulder, and was possibly related to a drug deal gone bad.
Two suspects, a man and a woman both dressed in black, then fled to the area of JC Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Drive, where they continued firing at responding officers.
Police retreated and took up defensive positions, and hundreds of officers, SWAT units, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives descended on the scene.
The massive response included resources from neighboring municipalities, as well as the FBI.
Officials said the two suspects were neutralized, and a robot was sent inside the store with officers following behind. There, they found the bodies of three civilians and the two suspects.
The officer shot in the cemetery was taken to Jersey City Medical Center and is expected to survive. It is unclear at this point where and when the other officers were wounded, but two of them were treated after being struck with shrapnel.
The officer who died has not yet been identified.
The shootout went on for over an hour:
Heavy gunfire could be heard for over an hour in what appeared to be an intense gun battle with the suspect or suspects, but the gunshots subsided around 2 p.m.
Police started slowly moving towards the bodega and clearing innocent people off the street, and then more shots were fired.
There is at least one survivor from the business being treated and talking to police. That person told them there were as many as four other people inside at the time the shooting occurred.
Police say this was likely a drug deal gone bad and not an act of terrorism:
Authorities also say this appears to have started as criminal activity and that there is no nexus to terrorism. Still, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring it.
Thank goodness it wasn’t terrorism, but three civilians and one police officer are still dead. A horrible day for Jersey City.