Jersey City police officers shot and killed a man early Tuesday morning after he opened fire on them, the city’s mayor said.
Neither the officers nor the suspect have been publicly identified, and only Mayor Steven Fulop has released a public statement on the incident.
The incident began around 1 a.m., when officers on patrol noticed a man “acting suspiciously” and “a bulge in his clothing consistent with a possible firearm,” Fulop wrote on social media.
When the cops approached him, the man pulled a gun and fired one bullet, the mayor said. An officer returned fire, mortally wounding the suspect.
No Jersey City police officers were wounded in the incident, Fulop said. The suspect was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Cops said they recovered the man’s gun from the scene.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s office will lead the investigation, as it does for all shootings involving police in the state. The office has not yet commented on the case.
Tuesday morning’s incident was the second time police in North Jersey have exchanged gunfire with a suspect in the past month. On Sept. 24 in Irvington, three officers were wounded in a shootout at a motel, authorities said.
All three officers were expected to recover from their injuries, and authorities did not release their names or publicly identify the suspect in that incident.
About two weeks later in Trenton, a city police officer was shot in the leg while walking past police headquarters around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, cops said. No suspects have been named in that incident either. The officer was expected to make a full recovery.
