Police in Newark announced today that Hassan Grimsley, 42, of Newark is in custody after a standoff that lasted more than 31 hours.
Police Thursday morning, detectives from the Essex County Narcotics Task Force, which includes detectives from Newark and throughout Essex County, were executing a warrant just before 6 a.m. at Grimsley’s Clinton Place home in the City of Newark with assistance from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office entry team.
Someone in the residence where Grimsley lived fired shots at law enforcement.
Officers took cover, evacuated residents in the other apartments, and evacuated the residents in the two adjacent homes.
Yesterday, as the events were unfolding at least eight people were relocated either with other family members or at hotels.
The search warrants were being executed as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation that began in May.
For more than 30 hours law enforcement from various agencies were in constant communications with the suspect urging him to surrender.
He refused. In addition to law enforcement, mental health professionals, friends, family members and neighborstried to convince the suspect, who had numerous guns, to come out.
According to police, at approximately, 12:55 pm today, Friday, July 9, officers engaged the suspect initially utilizing less lethal force and were met with deadly force from Grimsley who shot at the officers.
The officers returned fire, hitting Grimsley. He is currently at University Hospital. His condition is unknown at this time. None of the officers were injured. No civilians were injured.
“I am confident that everything possible was done to bring this situation to a non-fatal conclusion,’’ said Prosecutor Stephens.“This was done despite the stated wishes of the suspect that the police kill him because he was not going back to jail.”
Prosecutor Stephens said law enforcement at all levels worked together to bring this to a successful conclusion.
He thanked Newark Public Safety Director O’Hara, Essex County SheriffFontoura, Bloomfield Public Safety Director Samuel DeMaio, George Crouch, Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, and Toby Taylor, the Special Agent in Charge of the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives).