Police in Newark are investigating a shots fired incident while they search for suspects responsible for a shootout that had shoppers scrambling for cover while shopowners locked their doors to shield customers from the developing mayhem.
A preliminary statement released by police at 5:39 a.m. Saturday morning reported no injuries in the incident that had nearly a dozen police officers arrive in the 100 block of Avon Avenue at approximately 1 p.m. Friday -on one of the busiest shopping days of the month- after they received a ShotSpotter activation for multiple shots fired in the area.
Authorities say the gun battle took place in the Extra Supermarket Shopping Plaza's parking lot where according to witnesses who contacted RLS Media, two vehicles -occupied by suspects- pulled up in the parking lot and began to fire shots at each other.
Seniors residents, who live in a building across the street from the complex out doing shopping, were rushed back into the Extra Supermarket while suspects occupying a white Jaguar and a gold-colored vehicle continued to blast away inside the parking lot.
Witnesses say shoppers placing groceries in their vehicles and senior transportation vans, sprinted from what they were doing then banged on locked store doors seeking a safe place to hide from the dangerous situation.
Police officers from several precincts in the city rushed to the scene where they arrived and immediately secured the shopping complex then began a search for the suspected vehicles that were reported stolen out of The Middlesex and Bergen County towns of Woodbridge and Carlstadt according to reports.
Officers at the crime scene marked off about a dozen shell casings, noticed bullet holes in stores, and parked vehicles but after a thorough search of the scene, there were no one struck by gunfire according to police.
Suspects occupying one of the vehicles dumped the bullet-riddled stolen car in a driveway of a vacant building in the 100 block of Avon Avenue. Police found the second vehicle at The Pilgrim Village public housing complex with bullets holes in it according to reports.
According to officials, the suspects remain at-large and the investigation is active and ongoing.