2 Police Officers Shot In NJ Out Of Hospital; Timeline Of Shooting

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin released the timeline of what happened late Wednesday night at the Royal Albert’s Palace banquet hall, where a Woodbridge Police officer and a New York City Police officer were shot by a man wanted for an attempted homicide in New York City.

As of Friday morning, the names of the two police officers were still not released, nor has the name of their alleged shooter been released.

However, the officers, a patrolman from Woodbridge and a detective with the NYPD, each sustained one single gunshot wound. Both were treated at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, and have since been discharged and are in stable condition, said the attorney general.

The incident began Wednesday, when New York City Police officers alerted law enforcement in New Jersey they were looking for a suspect in an attempted homicide, a shooting, that took place in East Harlem.

NYPD said they knew the license plate number of the car they were looking for. Late Wednesday, Edison Police officers said they received a ping from an automated license plate reader that the suspect car was in their area.

Officers from the Edison and Woodbridge police departments responded to the Royal Albert’s Palace banquet center, attached to the Raritan Hotel, on King Georges Post Road in Woodbridge, where they located the car, unoccupied, parked in the hotel parking lot.

The NYPD was notified, and detectives with the NYPD arrived on scene.

After midnight, now Thursday, law enforcement converged at the hotel and police were conducting a civilian interview in the lobby when, at approximately 12:21 a.m., the hotel’s elevator doors opened, and the suspect ran out of the elevator toward the lobby holding multiple bags.

The AG says the suspect dropped his bags and reached into a black backpack. Gunfire was then exchanged between him and law enforcement.

The suspect and two police officers were struck during the exchange. Woodbridge Police officers immediately began rendering medical aid to the suspect until EMS got there.

The suspect was later pronounced dead at the scene. A handgun located near him was recovered and preserved. Multiple shell casings, fired from different weapons, were also recovered and will be compared with the guns used in the shooting in East Harlem.

Platkin praised the use of license-plate readers, which police have been installing across New Jersey, particularly in the North Jersey area outside New York.

"We know crime doesn't stop at the Hudson River," Platkin said Thursday. "Automated license plate reader technology identified the individual, and this (incident) underscores how important ALPR technology is."

Initial report: Suspect Shoots Woodbridge Police And NYPD Officer At Raritan Hotel