JERSEY CITY (United States), Dec 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Six people including a police officer and two suspects were killed during an hours-long shootout across a New York suburb not far from the Statue of Liberty, local officials said.
“Our officers were under fire for hours,” Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly told reporters after the latest high-profile US shooting.
In addition to the officer and the suspects, three civilians were killed in the incident that began around midday at a cemetery and ended in a store, Kelly said.
No clear reason for the shooting has been given.
Five of the dead were found inside a store, said Kelly.
“We believe that two of them are bad guys,” while the other three are civilians, he said, describing the crime scene as “very extensive, three locations at least.”
Two other officers were wounded, Kelly told reporters.
Kelly said the suspects’ “movement was rapid and continuous for four hours” during the drama which saw the deployment of hundreds of police from New Jersey and New York, including tactical officers armed with rifles and wearing olive-green fatigues and helmets.
Media reports said the shooting began when an officer investigating a homicide approached the suspects in the cemetery.
Identified by media as Detective Joseph Seals, he was the first victim.
The suspects then took refuge in a grocery store where firing continued and the five bodies were later found. — NNN-AGENCIES
