Six people died in a shooting that lasted more than two hours Tuesday in the heart of Jersey City, a New Jersey town bordering New York, local officials said. Michael Kelly, police chief of this city of 270,000 inhabitants, confirmed that a policeman and three civilians were killed, as well as the two suspects suspected of having started the shooting at midday, in a city cemetery.
Two other police officers were injured, he said during a press conference with the mayor of the city, stressing that the information was still “preliminary” and that the investigation would take time. If the shooting started in a cemetery, the suspects then “moved rapidly and continuously around the neighborhood” for several hours, said Michael Kelly.
A series of shootings in a busy New Jersey neighborhood left at least six people dead, including a police officer. The two suspected gunmen were among the deceased https://t.co/oDMHoKO2Q5 pic.twitter.com/rfISzwJjrE
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 11, 2019
Six people, including a police officer and three bystanders, were killed in a furious gunbattle that filled the streets of Jersey City, New Jersey, with the sound of heavy gunfire. https://t.co/R3dMJarAy2 pic.twitter.com/V40Jc1IZ2k
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) December 10, 2019
War scene
No clear reason has yet been given for this shooting, which turned a residential area of Jersey City into a scene of war for several hours: hundreds of police officers from across New Jersey and New York were deployed on the streets, often armed to the teeth, and dozens of emergency vehicles deployed on several streets. According to local media reports unconfirmed by police, the shooting started as a police officer, who was investigating a murder, approached the suspects in the cemetery. Identified as a detective by the name of Joe Seals, he died first.
The two suspects then took refuge in a grocery store, where the shooting continued. It was there that were found, after more than two hours of shooting, the bodies of the two suspects and three civilians, said Michael Kelly, without giving more details on these three victims. A stolen rental van, which “could contain an incendiary device”, was inspected by an explosives detection unit, police said. Hundreds of shots were exchanged, NBC television claimed. Schools and hospitals in the surrounding area were cordoned off as soon as the first reported gunfire was reported, as is the rule in the United States in the event of shooting.
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