Police shot a 25-year-old New Jersey man who allegedly threw a 6-foot-long sharpened fence post at a police officer's head after he and another officer asked him to put it down, authorities say.
Prosecutors say two Jersey City police officers from the Emergency Services Unit were on patrol near Martin Luther King Drive around 2:30 a.m. when they saw the fence post-wielding man in front of a house.
The officers pulled up next to the man and ordered him to drop the post, but prosecutors say the man allegedly starting hitting their truck with it instead, then threw it through the passenger window, hitting one of the officers in the head.
The man then allegedly reached into the truck through the passenger window, grabbed the barrel of one of the officer's rifles and tried to pull the gun out of the window. A struggle ensued, and the gun discharged into the passenger side door, prosecutors said.
Authorities say it is believed that the rounds went through the passenger side door and hit the suspect. Both officers got out of the car and ordered him to the ground, but he allegedly refused to comply and hid his hand in his waistband as if he had a gun.
When the man wouldn't show his hands, one of the officers shot him. He was taken into custody and transported to a nearby hospital, where he was to undergo surgery. Authorities say the man is expected to survive.
The two police officers were also being treated, one of them for a head injury suffered when the fence post was thrown through the truck window.
Any pending charges against the suspect weren't immediately clear.
SWAT teams were on hand to assist in the investigation.
Jersey City has been on edge since the fatal shooting of a rookie police officer at a Walgreens over the weekend. Melvin Santiago was shot and killed by a 23-year-old man as he responded to a call about an armed robbery at the drugstore. His funeral is scheduled for Friday.
Police shot and killed the suspect.
