Source: KENA BETANCUR / Getty
Multiple deaths are being reported in a violent Jersey City shootout that has reached national attention.
According to NBC New York, as many as six people may be dead — including a police officer, two suspects and three civilians — during an “ambush” active shooter incident at a store in Jersey City Tuesday afternoon, according to officials and law enforcement sources. The dead officer is identified as a 39-year-old married father of five, according to sources. At least two wounded officers and one wounded civilian are expected to survive, officials said.
The shootout started as a homicide investigation, say officials. The deceased officer approached suspects in that investigation and was fatally shot. The suspects then fled to the Jersey City Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Drive, where the standoff began around 12:30 p.m.
A law enforcement source said the suspects were inside the bodega for hours, one of whom was armed with a long firearm. Four other people were thought to be inside the bodega and there were at least three civilians killed inside the store, according to a law enforcement source.
Heavily armed local and state officers in SWAT trucks took over the scene, ducking behind doorways and store entrances, and some even crawled along sidewalks, to zone in on the bodega. Dozens of gunshots appeared to ring out throughout the afternoon, based on audio from the scene. What was normally a heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic area was now desolate. Senior law enforcement officials said it seems the suspect or suspects arrived at the scene in a truck.
Federal ATF and FBI agents in Newark were alerted of the incident and confirmed that they were responding to the scene and assisting where needed, along with the NYPD’s Special Ops team. About a dozen schools in the area were locked down initially. By 2 p.m., every public school in the entire city was ordered to be on lockdown, according to the district superintendent.
The superintendent of Jersey City Schools Frank Walker said he was notified that there was gunfire close to one of the schools in his PS 29 district shortly after 12:30 p.m. Mass transit was also held up with a number of rail and bus suspensions.
Multiple videos were captured from the intense incident and have made their way around social media. You can check out some of the clips below, including one which appears to show the police officer being shot.
Warning, the clips are disturbing.
