The story broke on my local news station overnight, i saw it when i awoke from a medically induced state of sleep. I was glad to hear all 4 officers, though shot, are ok and expected to survive.
My thoughts and prayers go out to these officers, and all of their families.
After searching the net i found a good article with alot of detailed info to share.
This story courtesy of Gannet NJ on Mycentraljersey.com:
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090924/STATE/90924002/0/ENTERTAINMENT/UPDATE--4-cops-shot-while-executing-search-warrant-in-Lakewood--suspect-critically-injured
UPDATE: Suspect in Lakewood cop shooting charged with attempted murder
By Margaret F. Bonafide • Gannett New Jersey • September 24, 2009
LAKEWOOD — The Lakewood man accused of firing at police who raided his home early Thursday morning as part of a gun trafficking investigation has been charged with four counts of attempted murder.
Jaime Gonzalez, 39, was also charged with possession of a handgun for unlawful purposes and receiving stolen property, in a complaint filed by Lakewood police Sgt. John Stillwell, head of police department's Street Crimes Unit.
Bail has been set at $2 million cash by Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson, sitting in Toms River.Law enforcement officials were executing a "no-knock" search warrant at 2:25 a.m. at 1154 Mackenzie Court when four township officers from the SWAT team were fired upon from atop a staircase inside the two-story home, officials have said. Gonzalez was the subject of a year-long investigation into the illegal trafficking of guns, Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said at a press conference late this morning.
The no-knock warrant, which has to be approved by a judge, was used because authorities suspected weapons were in the house, Ford said.
The most seriously injured officer was Patrolman Jonathan Wilson. He was shot in the face and is undergoing treatment, but his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, Ford said earlier, noting he is in good spirits and surrounded by his family.
Wilson was in stable condition when he was transferred from Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark at 6:05 a.m., a spokesman for Jersey Shore said. He remains in stable condition this afternoon at UMDNJ, a spokeswoman there said.
Lakewood police Chief Robert Lawson said Wilson is a "respected" and "decorated" member of the force which he has served on for six years. He is married with four children, Lawson said.
Lt. Gregory Meyer was shot in the foot, Ford said. He is in stable condition at Jersey Shore and will be admitted to the hospital, a spokesman said.
Sgt. Louis Sasso sustained minor shrapnel injuries from a bullet that struck him in his bulletproof vest. Patrolman Leonard Nieves Sr. was also shot in his vest. Sasso and Nieves were treated and released, according to Ford.
Lawson said it was the first-ever shooting of a Lakewood police officer.
Gonzalez sustained multiple gunshot wounds from returned fire from the officers, Ford said. He is in critical condition at Jersey Shore, a hospital spokesman said.
The gun he allegedly used was recovered at the scene, Ford said. The .357-caliber Magnum It was reported stolen out of South Carolina, according to a database of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials said at the press conference.
A second male who was in the house is "a person of interest" and is custody and being questioned. Ford would not confirm if the man was also a subject of the ongoing weapons investigation.
The investigation was also being conducted by the ATF's firearms task force, the State Police weapons task force, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Special Operations Group and the Lakewood Police Detective Bureau and Street Crimes Unit. Authorities did not say if any other weapons were recovered from the scene.
Lakekwood's SWAT, or tactical, team has 20 members, and 10 to 12 of them were on scene this morning to help serve the search warrant, Lawson said.
"The officers on the tactical team are a band of brothers,'' Lawson said.
"This affects every officer (on the 130-member township police force) to some extent," he said of the shooting.
The house targeted by police is a white, two-story Colonial, with an attached two-car garage, on a tree-lined cul-de-sac in a neighborhood near the intersection of Routes 9 and 70.
Ernie Caravello, who lives three doors down from the home, awoke to his dogs barking just after 2:30 a.m. and initially thought the commotion outside might have been someone trying to vandalize the RV parked in his driveway.
"I stepped out and I saw all the cops crouched down behind cars with shotguns. Then all of a sudden it was just 'Boom! Boom! Boom!'," he said. "I've heard shooting at ranges before but nothing like this. It was loud."
Over the next hour, he watched the scene unfold from his living room window, astonished his quiet, middle-class neighborhood was hosting a shootout between police and a suspect.
"This has been a very nice, very quiet place to live," he said. "These cops here in Lakewood are good guys. To hear that they were fired at and that four of them got hit, it just blew me away."
Wilson has been injured in the line of duty before. In May 2005, he was responding to a fire call on East County Line Road at about 10:10 p.m. with another patrolman when he was struck by a Jeep Cherokee while walking across the street. Wilson, who was 33 at the time, was thrown onto the hood of the SUV and received a cut to his head requiring 12 stitches, police said at the time.
Wilson graduated from the Ocean County Police Academy and began working as a Lakewood patrolman in January 2004, according to an Asbury Park Press report at the time.
No police officers was feloniously killed in the line of duty in New Jersey last year, but 2,572 police officers were assaulted while doing their jobs, according to the state's Uniform Crime Report.
Six officers in New Jersey were shot in 2008, according to statistics from the Uniform Crime Reporting Unit of the State Police. That year, there were 24 other cases that involved assaults with firearms, and those cases can include defendants who brandished weapons.
While the unit's numbers for this year have not yet been verified, preliminary statistics show six officers were shot in 2009, and there were 20 other cases involving an assault with firearms. Those 2009 numbers do not include this morning's incident in Lakewood.
The shooting comes more than two months after Jersey City police Det. Marc DiNardo was shot in the face storming an apartment where two armed robbery suspects were holed up. Four other officers were wounded in the gun battle and the suspects were killed.
DiNardo was taken off life support and pronounced dead one day before his 38th birthday.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment