The 14-year-old suspect was taken into custody on murder charges following the shootout with Newark, New Jersey, according to police officers and Essex County officials who left one person dead and a second hospitalization Friday evening.
The two officers involved in the shooting were part of a team investigating illegal firearm reports when shootouts were exchanged in the city’s North ward in the city’s North ward, officials said at a press conference on Saturday morning.
Witnesses say they heard a series of gunshots after seeing officers running down the street on a commercial strip between MacDonald’s and White Castle restaurants near the Passey River.
Police and officials with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said both the officer and the teenage suspect were injured in the altercation. The 14-year-old was taken to hospital and treated for a life-threatening injury, they said.
Police Department 5-year veteran Officer Joseph Azkona was shot dead while he was still in a police car. The 26-year-old officer was declared dead overnight in the hospital.
“He didn’t even get the chance to get out of the car before he was hit,” said Emmanuel Miranda, Newark’s director of public security. Azkona’s mother, father and siblings were in the hospital and were saddened to see him after the shooting, Miranda said.
The second officer was injured and was taken to university hospital, where he was also treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Officials previously said the officers were in danger.
At least one gun has been recovered from the teenager, officials said at a press conference. Four other individuals were also taken into custody and were questioned by police and county investigators.
The 14-year-old faced charges of murder, attempted murder and possession of an illegal weapon.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he was “updated to the incident” involving Newark officials, urging them to pray for these officers, their families and all our men and women in uniforms that risk their lives to keep them safe.”
The state attorney general said he is also monitoring the situation.
Newark Mayor Las Baraka called the shooting a “severe and merciless neglect of humanity” and said the officer went to the scene knowing that “a serious danger is possible.”
Officials at the press conference gave little other details about the group that fired police in Azkona, the police response that followed, or what led to the shootout.
Baraka expressed her frustration that society doesn’t understand how to prevent a 14-year-old with a firearm from shooting police.
“We have to do a better job. I have to do a better job. Our families need to do a better job. The community has to do a better job to make sure our kids aren’t handling guns in the streets and shoot police officers,” Baraka said. “This is not a police issue. This is our problem. This is our collective problem.”
