Jersey City Police Shoot 2 Men Apparently Playing With Fireworks
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – Police shot and wounded two men late Monday night in Jersey City.
The Hudson County prosecutor's office said a lieutenant and two officers were on patrol around 10:15 p.m. near the Arlington Gardens Housing Complex on Ralph Avenue.
It appears fireworks were going off in the area at the time.
Prosecutors said all three officers fired their weapons, striking the 19 and 21-year-old victims.
They were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The emergency radio calls were captured by Broadcastify.
"Shots fired. We need an ambulance.... All right, we need an ambulance. We got one male shot in the butt and this is officer-involved, advise the captain," the dispatcher said.
The 19-year-old has been treated and released, CBSN New York's Alice Gainer reported.
"My friends, they was having a good time, shooting Roman Candles, and the cop shot him," one victim's friend told CBS2's Jenna DeAngelis. "This violence has to stop. It's bad enough in this community, there's a lot of stuff going on. But it's really got to stop."
The victim's names have not been released.
"It sounded like firecrackers. That's what I thought it was. Then, apparently, there was shooting. So I don't know," said neighbor Lisa Petteway. "I came out, I heard, was listening, and I checked to see if my car was OK."
"I heard the fireworks and I heard the gunshots. The fireworks wasn't loud, but you could hear the gunshots," neighbor Dorine Tyre added.
"I was out here, saw they was playing all day. The police did not respond to it," said another neighbor. "If you know police, you know the difference between fireworks and gunshots."
The exact chain of events is under investigation.
A spokesperson for the Jersey City mayor's office said "right now, there are no indications of any violations of the Attorney General guidelines on the officers' part."
