“I’m Jewish and proud to live in a community like Jersey City that has always welcomed everyone,” Fulop wrote on Twitter. “It is the home of Ellis Island and has always been the golden door to America. Hate and anti-semitism have never had a place here in JC and will never have a place in our city.”
Authorities are still investigating the attack and have not indicated a motive. Before the mayor’s Wednesday tweets, investigators had said the store was chosen at random and was not indicative of a hate crime.
The standoff began when two men shot and killed a police officer who approached them at Bayview Cemetery in the city’s Greenville neighborhood, Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly said. The gunmen fled to the kosher market, where they exchanged more fire with authorities and were killed. Three other people, believed to be bystanders, were also among the dead in the store, Kelly said.
The slain police officer was identified as Det. Joseph Seals, a 15-year veteran of the Jersey City force. Two other officers were also shot, Kelly said. They were treated and released from the hospital.
“It’s a really tough day for the city of Jersey City,” Fulop said at a news conference Tuesday evening.
Photos from the scene of a deadly shooting in Jersey City
Officials have not disclosed the identities of the suspects or of the others killed at the store. But they described a difficult and dangerous episode that began shortly after noon in a residential community, near schools and stores, further complicated by the two suspects’ near-constant movement.
“Their movement was rapid and continuous for four hours within that area,” Kelly said.
Police also recovered a stolen U-Haul vehicle that Kelly said “may contain an incendiary device” and that bomb squads were investigating.
Video and photographs from the scene showed throngs of heavily armed officers from a patchwork of agencies converging on the northeastern New Jersey city, which sits between Newark and the southern tip of Manhattan. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Newark said its agents were responded, along with other New Jersey authorities and Special Operations officers from the New York Police Department.
Across the street from the convenience store where the gun battle ended, students and staff at Sacred Heart School sheltered in place, a spokeswoman told The Washington Post, adding that all were safe.
The violence also prompted lockdowns in all 43 of the city’s public schools, Jersey City Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas told local media.
“All students and staff are safe,” the School District of Jersey City said in a statement.
“Today reminds us of their bravery and the sacrifices they, and their families, make for our communities,” Murphy said.
Jersey City is a strong and resilient community. Tomorrow is a new day. It is a day when we will think to those lost, and in their names, we will think of how we can ensure that this doesn’t ever happen again -- in Jersey City, or in any community in our proud state.
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) December 11, 2019
The state’s police officer union said that its “officers have come under attack and we have several wounded.”
“Today is a horrific day,” the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association said in a tweet. In another, the union added: “We need a lot of prayers right now for Jersey City officers.”
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2019-12-11 13:05:00Z
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