By: Richard L. Smith
An hours-long police search inside a Newark South Ward building for a suspect wanted for shooting two police officers ended with the suspect escaping the area and remaining at large Tuesday.
Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II, reported that Mr. Kendall Howard, 30, has been charged with the Attempted Murder of two Newark Police officers on November 1.
Authorities alleged that just before 2 p.m., Howard shot the two officers as they attempted to question him in the area of Chancellor Avenue and Van Velsor Place in Newark.
Both officers were rushed to University Hospital in Newark, where they remain hospitalized.
A video of the shooting obtained by RLS Media showed one of the injured officers -shot in the leg- stumbling towards a car parked in an alley after gunfire rang out on the upper floors of the roof of the multi-family building.
A second officer was lying on the ground bleeding heavily from his neck area when a female resident cared for the wounded cop.
Newark Police officers rushed to the scene and carried the injured cop from the alley to safety but not before the rifle-wielding suspect continued firing from around the building.
Police searched over a dozen apartments inside the large building but ended the hunt after it was clear Howard was not inside the structure.
According to The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Kendall “Book” Howard, 30, is 6’ 3” tall and weighs 180-200lbs.
He has brown eyes, and tattooed on the rear side of his neck: “FEATHER.”
Howard has been charged with two counts of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a firearm for an illegal purpose.
Police believe Howard is from NY and has ties to East Orange. He was wanted for firing a gun in a section of Newark's South Ward on October 28.
Officials said he should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone seeing the suspect should call 911 immediately.
The charges against the defendant are merely allegations.
He is presumed innocent at this time.
