By Wayne Parry, The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Bulletproof vests saved the lives of two police officers who were shot within hours of each other in separate incidents Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
A Newark officer who was shot by a suspect late Tuesday was upgraded from critical to serious condition Wednesday morning. And a Springfield officer who was shot by one of two men whose vehicle he was investigating was released from the same hospital later in the day.
“These two incidents really highlight the absolute necessity of wearing those vests while on the job,” said Mitchell Sklar, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police.
He noted that some officers complain about the vests being bulky, hot or otherwise uncomfortable.
“But after being able to visit these guys in the hospital and knowing they’ll be going home to their families, you can’t help but buy into it 100 percent,” he said.
In Newark, Officer Patrick Gonella, 39, a six-year veteran of the force, was on patrol Tuesday night with a street crimes task force in what police described as a known drug area when gunfire erupted.
When eight or nine uniformed officers with the Neighborhood Enforcement Stabilization Task force approached four or five men on a sidewalk on 16th Avenue near West Side Park at 11:20 p.m., one of the men opened fire, striking Gonella several times.
The officers fired back, wounding the suspect, William Gainous, 20, of Newark, who ran through an alley and into a nearby Chinese restaurant, turning back to fire several shots at pursuing police officers as he ran, Acting Police Director Anthony Ambrose III said.
Inside the restaurant, Gainous crouched in a firing position with his back against the far wall with his gun pointed at the restaurant’s door, Ambrose said. Three officers reached the front door and ordered Gainous to surrender. When he refused, the officers shot him.
Gainous was pronounced dead at University Hospital, where Gonella also was rushed. Gonnella, who is married and has two children, lives in Ocean County.
Police later determined that Gainous had committed an armed robbery minutes before only a block away, but that incident was unknown to Gonnella and his colleagues when they approached him, Ambrose said.
A few hours later, Springfield officer Christopher LaFragola was on patrol along Route 22, checking businesses and commercial properties in the early morning hours Wednesday.
He saw a car parked on a side street near a wooded area that was suspicious because there was little reason for a car to be in that area at that time, Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow said.
Authorities said LaFragola radioed in a description of the car to police headquarters, got out of his police cruiser to investigate, and one or both of the suspects opened fire, missing him with a first shot but striking him in the right side of the chest with a second shot.
The officer radioed to headquarters that he had been shot, and was unable to pursue the suspects, who escaped, Romankow said.
LaFragola sustained an injury to his chest where the bullet struck the vest, but after undergoing numerous tests and X-rays at the hospital, he was released later Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said.
LaFragola, who has been on the Springfield force since 1986, was able to return fire at the suspects, but it was not immediately known if either was hit, Romankow said.
The vehicle used by the suspects was spotted several hours later on a local street in Irvington just off the Garden State Parkway, but police cars were unable to stop it, Romankow said.
The vehicle is described as a late 1990s 4-door Ford Taurus or Mercury Sable, either gold or brown, with temporary license plates in the rear window.
The Union County Prosecutor’s Office is offering an unspecified cash reward for information leading to the car and its occupants, Romankow said. Anyone with information is asked to call (908) 654-9800.
Tuesday night’s shooting was the second of a Newark task force officer within four days. Officer Richard Borges is recuperating from chest and shoulder wounds he sustained during a shooting early Saturday.